A member of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Distinguished Prof. Marek directs the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Sustainability Center for Catalysis, which aims to develop new catalysts needed for the production of food, fuel, medicine, and other critical products. Through this research, the Center promises to enable humankind to meet its growing needs more efficiently while lessening the negative impact on nature.
Distinguished Prof. Marek has pioneered new methodologies to connect carbon atoms that efficiently prepare highly sophisticated molecular backbones (the building blocks of life) found both in living creatures and in synthetic materials. The methods he develops dramatically minimize waste production.
Born in Haifa, Distinguished Prof. Marek is a binational French-Israeli chemist who received his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry at the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. He conducted postdoctoral work in Belgium and held a research position at the French National Centre for Scientific Research before joining the Technion faculty in September 1997.
Distinguished Prof. Marek has held the Sir Michael and Lady Sobell Academic Chair since 2015 and is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Academia Europaea.
He has received numerous awards, and just this year, he was honored with the Richard Willstätter Lecturership from the Society of German Chemists and the Israel Chemical Society; the Inaugural Olivier Lectureship, Netherlands; the 29th Felix Serratosa Lectureship, Spain; and the 2025 Research Award from the EuChemS Division of Organic Chemistry.
