Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus, and Alexei Ekimov, all of Russian descent, received the Nobel Chemistry Prize on Wednesday for their work on the diminutive quantum dots.
Before the announcement, the names of the trio were leaked to the Swedish media. They were successful in creating these tiny components, which “now spread their light from televisions and LED lamps, and can also guide surgeons when they remove tumour tissue, among many other things,” the jury added.
The three chemists from the US were identified in a press statement from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, according to multiple Swedish media outlets, hours before the academy even convened to cast its final vote on the winners.
Speaking to reporters, Bawendi stated that he had not seen the leaked reports and was “shocked” by the news.
The various prize-awarding academies go to considerable measures to keep the winners’ names under wraps until the announcements, therefore Nobel leaks are uncommon.
Bawendi, a 62-year-old professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, was born to French and Tunisian parents in Paris.
Professor Brus, 80, teaches at Columbia University in New York, while Alexei Ekimov, a US-based employee of Nanocrystals Technology, is of Russian descent.
On December 10, the anniversary of the scientist Alfred Nobel’s passing in 1896, the trio will split a $1 million prize and be presented with it by King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony in Stockholm. Nobel established the awards in his will, and the event will take place on the anniversary.
After the physics prize and the medical prize were revealed earlier this week, the chemistry prize is the third Nobel of the year.
In the field of medicine, Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman received recognition on Monday for their ground-breaking work that led to the development of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccine.
The study of electrons inside atoms and molecules using ultra-quick light flashes earned French researchers Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier the physics prize on Tuesday.
On Thursday and Friday, respectively, the prize-giving ceremonies for literature and peace will be held.
On Monday, the 2023 Nobel season comes to an end with the Economics Prize, which was established in 1968 and is the only Nobel that was not included in Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel’s will that established the prizes in 1895.
