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since 1995. He studied in Rennes, where he passed his thesis before a post-doc at MIT (Cambridge) with R. R. Schrock. He is the author, inter alia, of Electron Transfer and Radical Processes in Transition-Metal Chemistry (VCH, 1995, prefaced by Henry Taube) and Chimie Organome ´tallique (EDP Science, 2000). He has been Awarded the Prize of the Coordination Chemistry Division of the French Chemical Society (1981), the German-French Alexander von Humboldt Prize (1989), and the Le Bel Prize of the French Chemical Society (2000). His scientific interests are presently in the field of nanosciences, especially dendrimers, polymers, and colloids, and their applications as sensors, catalysts, and enzyme mimics. Franc ¸oise Chardac (formerly Pisciotti) was born in Poitiers and studied in Bordeaux. She passed her Diplome under the supervision of Professor R. Lalande in terpene chemistry. Then she collaborated with Professor R. Calas and Dr. J. Dunogue `s in organosilicon chemistry in the Laboratoire de Chimie Organique et Organome ´tallique of the University of Bordeaux I, where she is doing a literature search at present.

The appearance of ferrocene in the middle of the 20th century has revolutionized organometallic chemistry and is now providing applications in areas as varied and sometimes initially unexpected as optical and redox devices, battery and other materials, sensing, catalysis, including asymmetric and enantioselective catalysis, and medicine. The author presents here a general, although personal, view of ferrocene's chemistry, properties, functions, and applications through a literature survey involving both historical and up‐to‐date trends and including examples of his group's research in a number of these areas. The review gathers together general features of ferrocene chemistry and representative examples of the salient aspects. Its focus is on ferrocene's basic properties, ferrocene‐containing ligands, the ferrocene/ferricinium redox couple, ferrocene mixed‐valence and average‐valence systems, the ferricinium/ferrocene redox shuttle in catalysis, ligand‐exchange reactions, ferrocene‐containing polymers, ferrocene‐containing structures for cathodic battery and other materials, ferrocenes in supramolecular ensembles, liquid crystals, and nonlinear optical materials, ferrocene‐containing stars and their electrostatic effects, ferrocene‐containing dendrons, dendrimers, and nanoparticles (NPs) and their application in redox sensing and catalysis, and ferrocenes in nanomedicine.