Professor Jean-Marie Basset is the Distinguished Professor for Chemical Science in the Physical Science and Engineering Division at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology. Prof. Basset, who has authored more than 500 scientific papers 50 patents, pioneered the field of “Surface Organometallic Chemistry", which focuses on possible relationships between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Professor Basset received his Ph.D. in 1969 from the University of Lyon, France. After a postdoctoral position in Toronto, he moved to the Institute of Catalysis in Lyon where he became vice-director. In 1987, he founded the Laboratory of Surface Organometallic Chemistry that became later the laboratory of Chemistry, Catalysis, Polymer, Process (C2P2). Professor Basset’s Lyon lab was home to 100 scientists, including Nobel Laureate Yves Chauvin who got his Nobel in 2005. In 2009 he moved to the King Abdulla University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia as director of the KAUST Catalysis Center.