Russian chemist Alexei Ekimov one of three nanotechnology researchers honored by this year’s Nobel Prize
The Russian chemist Alexei Ekimov and his colleagues Moungi Bawendi and Louis Brus, all of them working in the U.S., are the honorees of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The trio of scientists is being recognized for discovering and synthesizing quantum dots — “nanoparticles so tiny that their size determines their properties.” “A quantum dot,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explains, “is a crystal that often consists of just a few thousand atoms. In terms of size, it has the same relationship to a football as a football has to the size of the Earth.”
It is quantum dots that now illuminate computer monitors and other QLED screens. The technology also adds nuance to LED lamps used in surgery, offering precision lighting for living tissue.
Several hours before the official announcement, the Royal Academy of Sciences sent out emails revealing this year’s Chemistry Prize laureates, apparently by some mistake. Although the academy declined to comment on the emails at the time, at the appointed hour the names of the laureates were confirmed.
Alexei Ekimov was born in 1945 in the former USSR, earning his doctorate from Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute in St. Petersburg in 1974.
