Eleventh Nano Research Award goes to Louis E. Brus and Moungi Bawendi

Recently, Nano Research announced awardees of the 11^th Nano Research Award. Two outstanding scientists, Professor Louis E. Brus of Columbia University and Professor Moungi Bawendi of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have been awarded this honor.

The Nano Research Award, established by the journal Nano Research together with Tsinghua University Press (TUP) and Springer Nature in 2013, aims to recognize outstanding contributions to nano research by an individual scientist. The winner is selected by the Award Committee (the Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, representatives from TUP and Springer Nature) after receiving nominations from the members of the Nano Research Editorial Board.

Nano Research is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary research journal, publishes all aspects of nano science and technology, featured in rapid review and fast publishing, sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Chemical Society. After 17 years of development, it has become one of the most influential academic journals in the nano field. In 2023 InCites Journal Citation Reports, Nano Research has an Impact Factor of 9.9, the total cites reached 35645, and the number of highly cited papers reached 229, ranking among the top 1.5% of 8786 academic journals.

Professor Louis E. Brus won the Nano Research Award for his pioneering contributions on discovering and analyzing size-dependent quantum effects in colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (chemical quantum dots) synthesized in liquids. Smaller particles absorbed light that shifted towards blue compared to larger particles. Today, quantum dots are used in a wide range of electronic products, including computer and television screens and LED lamps. They can also be used to map biological tissue. These important discoveries have had wide impact.

Professor Louis E. Brus is currently the Samuel Latham Mitchill Professor Emeritus, and Special Research Scientist at Columbia University. Prof. Brus became an elected fellow of the American Physical Society in 1980 and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1998, and he was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2004. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2023 with Moungi Bawendi and Alexy Ekimov. He won the American Chemical Society’s Chemistry of Materials Prize in 2005 and the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience in 2008. Prof. Brus shared the R.W. Wood Prize of the Optical Society of America (OSA, now Optica) with Russian scientists Alexander L. Efros and Alexy Ekimov in 2006 for their work with quantum dots. In addition, Prof. Brus received the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences in 2010 for his ongoing work with nanocrystals. He served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Gordon Research Conferences in 1998.

Professor Moungi Bawendi was selected for the award in recognition of his groundbreaking contributions to the production of near-perfect quantum dots of specified sizes and smooth surfaces. The method he pioneered is easy to use and revolutionary. In today’s life, quantum dots are used in a wide range of industries, including the field of display technology, photovoltaics and biomedicine. This important discovery has revolutionized human society.

Professor Moungi Bawendi is the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry at MIT. Prof. Bawendi received a Sloan Research Fellowship in 1994, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004, and to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2023, the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Chemistry in 2001, the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Prize in 2006, and the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in Colloid Chemistry in 2010.