Prof. David Portehault is research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and at the Laboratory of Condensed Matter of Paris (LCMCP) hosted by Sorbonne University. He was appointed by the CNRS in 2010. He received the 2019 EuChemS Lecture Award and was granted a European Research Council Consolidator Grant the same year.

His main current research topic is the exploration of new synthesis pathways at the edge of solid-state chemistry and solution chemistry, especially molten salts and aqueous chemistry, to discover original nanomaterials for energy-related properties, focused on electrocatalysis.