Three scientists win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his or her work on quantum dots

Michael Taylor
Michael Taylor

World Courant

Scientists Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this Wednesday for his or her analysis on nanoparticles, in an version marked by the leak of their names earlier than the official announcement.

The three scientists, whose names reached the Swedish press early on Wednesday, have been awarded for “the invention and synthesis of quantum dots,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences stated in an announcement.

These tiny nanotechnological parts diffuse mild from televisions and LED lamps and can even information surgeons when eradicating tumor tissue, the Academy stated.

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Quantum dots are semiconductor nanocrystals, between 2 and 10 nanometers in diameter. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.

Hours earlier than the official announcement of the laureates, a press launch with their names was despatched by mistake to some Swedish media. Hans Ellegren, secretary common of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in control of making the announcement, stated he “deeply regrets” this early launch.

“We deeply remorse what occurred. The vital factor is that this didn’t have an effect on the attribution of the awards in any method,” she added.

The leak of the title of a Nobel winner may be very uncommon and the Swedish Academy strives to maintain the debates secret. The checklist of nominees can be stored secret for 50 years.

– Dimension and coloration –

Particularly, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Alexei Ekimov, 78 years outdated and born in Russia, and Louis Brus, 80 years outdated and born in america, “for having found that it’s doable to fabricate quantum dots,” burdened Heiner Linke, member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

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Moungi Bawendi, 62, born in France, was honored for having “realized a synthesis technique that makes quantum dots very extensively usable,” Linke added.

Louis Brus is a professor at Columbia College in New York, and Alexei Ekimov was chief scientist on the US-based firm Nanocrystals Expertise.

Ekimov started his profession on the Ioffe Institute of Physics and Expertise in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), earlier than beginning to work in america in 1999.

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Moungi Bawendi is a professor on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise (MIT).

“The 2023 Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry managed to supply particles so small that their properties are decided by quantum phenomena,” the Academy defined.

“What stands out about quantum dots is that by altering their measurement with just a few hundred atoms or with an extra layer of atoms, you alter their properties, for instance their coloration,” stated Heiner Linke.

– “Stunned, shocked, honored” –

Contacted simply after the announcement, Moungi Bawendi stated he was “very shocked” in addition to “shocked and really honored.”

“I did not know (that there was a leak), the Swedish Academy woke me up. “He was quick asleep,” he declared by cellphone in the course of the press convention, assuring that he was not anticipating the decision.

However, Swedish radio SR contacted Louis Brus, with whom the Swedish Academy had not been capable of talk. Brus said that he could be “extraordinarily blissful if it have been confirmed to be true.”

“I would favor to speak later, in the course of the morning. “I’m nonetheless surprised, nevertheless it’s clearly an excellent honor,” she advised the station.

Final yr, three scientists have been awarded the identical award for “the event of click on and bioorthogonal chemistry”, used particularly in pharmaceutical therapies.

Like the opposite Nobel Prizes, the one in Chemistry was criticized for its lack of range and equality. Since 1901, solely eight girls have achieved it, out of 114 laureates.

The three laureates will share the prize of 11 million crowns (round 920 thousand euros, 1 million {dollars}), which can be awarded to them by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the loss of life of the scientist Alfred Nobel, who created the prizes in his will

Chemistry is the third Nobel Prize of the season, after Medication and Physics, introduced this week.

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature and Peace can be introduced on Thursday and Friday respectively, and on Monday the prize for Economics can be introduced.


Three scientists win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his or her work on quantum dots

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