Marie-Paule Pileni is a Distinguished Professor and Director of LM2N at the Paris VI University and chairperson of the Institut Universitaire de France. She is a recipient of the Langmuir award of the ACS, the lecture award of the Japanese Chemical Society, the Research Award of the Humboldt Foundation in Germany and the Descartes-Huygens Prize of the Royal Netherlands Academy, and was the French citation laureate, the ISI Award for the most-quoted French scientist. Professor Pileni is a member of the European Academy of Science as well as the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and has a doctorate honoris causa from Chalmers University, Göteborg, Sweden. She is Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur.