The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to researchers Mungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Oleksiy I. Yekimov, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

The prize was awarded for the “discovery and synthesis of quantum dots”.

Nanoparticles and quantum dots are used in LED lights and TV screens, and can be used to guide surgeons when removing cancerous tissue.

“Independently of each other, Yekimov and Brus managed to create quantum dots, and Bawendi made a revolution in chemical production.

Currently, quantum dots illuminate computer monitors and TV screens based on QLED technology. They also add shades to the light of LED lamps, and biochemists and doctors use them to map biological tissues,” the Nobel Prize website says.

The prize, which is more than a hundred years old, is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is worth one million dollars.

The names of the winners were announced in error

On Wednesday morning, shortly before the official announcement, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences mistakenly published the names of the three scientists who won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

“The Nobel Prize Committee in Chemistry is awarding in 2023 the discovery and development of quantum dots, those nanoparticles that are so small that their size determines their properties,” Academy representatives wrote in an email, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN) reported.

However, Johan Aquist, the chairman of the Nobel Committee of the Academy of Chemistry, made the following statement to the Reuters news agency: “This is a mistake of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Our meeting starts at 07:30 GMT (10:30 Romanian time), so no decision has been made yet. The winners have not been determined.”

Who are Mungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Oleksiy Ekimov

Bawendi is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brus is a professor emeritus at Columbia University, and Yekimov works at Nanocrystals Technology Inc.

In 1972, Bruce was hired by AT&T Bell Labs, where he spent 23 years, devoting most of his time to the study of nanocrystals.

Bawendi was born in Paris, grew up in France, Tunisia and the United States. Bawendi did postdoctoral research under Bruce, then joined MIT in 1990 and became a professor in 1996.

Yekimov was born in the Soviet Union and worked at the Vavilov State Optical Institute before moving to the United States. In 1999, Yekimov was appointed chief scientist of Nanocrystals Technology Inc.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in numbers

Since 1901, 115 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry have been awarded. It was not awarded eight times: in 1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940, 1941 and 1942.

Why weren’t chemistry prizes awarded in those years? The statutes of the Nobel Foundation state: “If none of the considered works turns out to be important, specified in the first paragraph, the prize money will be reserved until the following year. If the prize cannot be awarded again, the amount will be added to the restricted funds of the foundation. Fewer Nobel Prizes were awarded during the First and Second World Wars.

Joint and undivided Nobel Prizes in Chemistry:

• 63 prizes in chemistry were awarded to one laureate.
• 25 awards in chemistry were shared by two laureates.
• 27 awards in chemistry were divided among three laureates.

Why is this happening? The statute of the Nobel Foundation states: “The amount of the prize may be divided equally between two works, each of which is considered worthy of the prize. If the work to be awarded is performed by two or three persons, the prize shall be awarded jointly to them.” The amount of the prize may in no case be divided between more than three persons.”

Number of winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to 194 laureates between 1901 and 2022. Frederick Sanger and Barry Sharpless were awarded twice, and since 1901, 192 people have received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

To date, the youngest winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is Frédéric Joliot, who was 35 years old when he received the Chemistry Prize in 1935 with his wife, Irene Joliot-Curie.

The oldest winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to date is John B. Goodenough, who was 97 years old when he received the Chemistry Prize in 2019. He is also the oldest recipient to have been awarded in all award categories.

Of the 192 laureates of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to date, eight are women. Two of these eight women, Marie Curie and Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, received undivided prizes in chemistry.

1911 – Marie Curie (also laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903)

1935 – Irene Joliot-Curie (daughter of Marie Curie and wife of Frédéric Joliot)

1964 – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

2009 – Ada Yonat

2018 – Francis H. Arnold

2020 – Emmanuel Charpentier

2020 – Jennifer A. Doudna

2022 – Carolyn R. Bertozzi

The Curies were the most successful “family of Nobel Laureates”. Marie and Pierre Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. Marie Curie was awarded a second Nobel Prize in 1911, this time for Chemistry. Curie’s daughters, Irene Joliot-Curie, together with her husband Frederic Joliot, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. The youngest daughter, Eva Curie, worked for UNICEF and was married to Henri R. Labois, who received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of UNICEF in 1965.