Paul Alivisatos
Director of the Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)
Helios Project
Paul Alivisatos attended the University of Chicago, where he received a
Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry with Honors in 1981. He continued
his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he
worked under the supervision of Charles Harris. His Ph.D. thesis
concerned the photophysics of electronically excited molecules near
metal and semiconductor surfaces. In 1986, he went to AT&T Bell Labs
where he worked with Louis Brus as a postdoctoral, and it was at this
time that he first became involved in research related to
Nanotechnology. In 1988, he joined the faculty of the University of
California, Berkeley, where he is presently Professor of Chemistry and
Materials Sciences. He has received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
fellowship, the ACS Exxon Solid State Chemistry Fellowship, the Coblentz
Award, the Wilson Prize at Harvard, the Materials Research Society
Outstanding Young Investigator Award, the ACS Award in Colloid and
Surface Chemistry (2004), the Rank Prize (2006), and the University of
Chicago Distinguished Alumni Award (2006). He is a Fellow of both the
American Physical Society and the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. In 2004, he was elected into the National
Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He
is the Editor of the American Chemical Society Journal and Nano Letters.
He is a senior member of the technical staff at the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, where he has been appointed Associate Laboratory
Director for Physical Sciences and where he also serves as Director of
the Materials Sciences Division.
His research concerns the structural, thermodynamic, optical, and
electrical properties of colloidal inorganic nanocrystals. He
investigates the fundamental physical and chemical properties of
nanocrystals and also works to develop practical applications of these
new materials in biomedicine and renewable energy.
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