Three share Nobel prize in chemistry for quantum dots discovery

Two American scientists and a Russian have been awarded the 2023 Nobel prize in chemistry for their work on quantum dots, a fundamental discovery in nanotechnology.

The prize is shared equally between Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexey Ekimov for their discoveries that went on to revolutionise industries from consumer electronics to healthcare.

Bawendi is an American chemist of French and Tunisian descent, based at MIT, Brus is based at Columbia University and Ekimov is chief scientist at Nanocrystals Technology, a New York-based company.

The official announcement came after the three names were leaked in an email to a Swedish newspaper earlier on Wednesday morning, in an embarrassing incident for the academy. Johan Åqvist, the chair of the academy’s Nobel committee for chemistry, claimed the winners had not been selected, but the names were confirmed at the official announcement.

Bawendi said that on learning of his award through an overnight phone call, he felt “very surprised, shocked, sleepy and very honoured”, adding that he had been unaware of the leak. “I was awakened by the Swedish academy, I was sound asleep.”

The academy did not respond to questions about how the leak had happened or whether an investigation would be launched into who was responsible.

Source: The Guardian