Background

From Verviers originally, Jean-Paul Pirard began his civil engineering studies at the University of Liège in 1965. A taste for chemistry came to him in the second year. After a chemical civil engineering degree in 1970, he landed a Doctorate in applied sciences in 1974. His thesis focused on heterogeneous catalysis, in other words on substances which accelerate a chemical process. All of his university career has operated in the slipstream of this thesis. He sums up his craft in a simple sentence: ‘I am a specialist of the material and heat transfers that take place in a chemical reaction’.

Jean-Paul Pirard is also a musician of an excellent standard. He carried out a complete musical education at the Verviers conservatory. He came out of it with a first prize for the flute and reached a professional level in this musical discipline. For a long time he played for, amongst others, the University of Liège’s instrument ensemble – led by his brother Emmanuel, also a flautist by training. Today, Professor Pirard contents himself with listening to classical music – thanking his parents for having initiated him into this art a long time ago – and with being the contact person for CIMI (the interfaculty musical instrument circle). A passionate follower of opera, he also has a heightened taste for architecture, archaeology and the history of art.