Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus, Alexei Ekimov win Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2023

Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2023 for the “discovery and synthesis of quantum dots”, Sweden’s Royal Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday.

“The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2023 rewards the discovery and development of quantum dots, nanoparticles that are so small that their size determines their properties,” the academy wrote in a statement.

Quantum dots are widely used in areas such as modern LED television screens, solar panels and in medicine where they among other things can help guide surgeons removing tumours.

BREAKING NEWS
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2023 #NobelPrize in Chemistry to Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots.” pic.twitter.com/qJCXc72Dj8

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 4, 2023

Earlier in the day, media reports suggested that the names of the prize winners for Chemistry-- the two American chemists and a Russian physicist may have been leaked, but the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences denied the claims and had at that point said the decision was still to be taken about the prize winners.

The prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is worth 11 million Swedish kronor (£820,000).

Chemistry is the third Nobel to be awarded this week after awards were announced for Physics and Medicine. Scientists Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for "experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter"

Bawendi is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brus is professor emeritus at Columbia University and Ekimov works for Nanocrystals Technology Inc.

Brus started his scientific career on a US Navy scholarship where he studied at Rice and Columbia University. In 1972 he was hired by AT&T Bell Labs where he spent 23 years, devoting much of the time to studying nanocrystals.

Bawendi was born in Paris and grew up in France, Tunisia, and the U.S. Bawendi did his postdoctoral research at Bell Laboratories under Brus. Bawendi joined MIT in 1990 and became professor in 1996.