2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Aleksey Yekimov. The prize was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on 4 October 2023.

The citation

The citation reads: "for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots". They share the prize equally.

The laureates

Moungi Bawendi was born in 1961 in Paris, France, and is affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge. Louis Brus was born in 1943 in Cleveland, the United States, and is affiliated with Columbia University, New York. Aleksey Yekimov was born in 1945 in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia), and is affiliated with Nanocrystals Technology Inc., New York.

Why it matters

Quantum dots are tiny particles whose colour depends on their size. They are used in television screens and LED lamps and can help surgeons see tumours.

The prize

The prize is worth 11 million Swedish kronor, divided between the laureates. It will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895.