*   Member then Chairman of the Inorganic Chemistry Nomenclature Commission of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)
*   Member of the IUPAC Bureau, then President (1989-1991)
*   Correspondent of the French Academy of sciences (1980) (member of the Sealed Folds Commission, the Philosophy and History of Science Commission, the Metrology Commission, President of the French Committee of International Scientific Unions - COFUSI)
*   Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Leeds (1990)
*   Winner of the Alexander von Humboldt Prize (1990)
*   Visiting Professor at the Universities of Hamburg, Heidelberg and Munich (Technische Universität)
*   Chevalier in the Ordre National du Mérite, Officier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques