Richard P. Feynman
(1918-1988) |
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2007 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize
Submissions/nominations were due June 30, 2007 |
Winners of the 2007 Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology
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| James Von Ehr, Founder, Zyvex Group; Fraser Stoddart of the University of California, Los Angeles, winner in the Experimental category; David Leigh of University of Edinburgh, winner in the Theory category; Pearl Chin, President of Foresight Nanotech Institute |
The winners of this year's prizes were announced at the Feynman Prize Luncheon on October 9, 2007 at the Productive Nanosystems Conference.
The 2007 Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes, named in honor of pioneer physicist Richard Feynman, are given in two categories, one for experimental work and the other for theory in advances in nanotechnology. This year the Theory Prize was won by David Leigh of University of Edinburgh, UK, and the Experimental Prize went to Fraser Stoddart of UCLA.
"This year's winning research illustrates the great strides toward productive nanosystems now taking place throughout the world," said Dr. Pearl Chin, President of Foresight Nanotech Institute. "The goal of manufacturing with atomic precision advances daily, and we can expect even faster progress building on the work being honored today."
This year's winner in the Theory category, David A. Leigh of University of Edinburgh, is the world's foremost pioneer on the design and synthesis of artificial molecular motors and machines from first principles and one of the most dynamic and innovative chemists of his generation, focusing on the construction of molecular machine systems that function in the realm of Brownian motion. Leigh's theoretical studies of synthetic molecular motors and machines contribute an important element toward the development of molecular machine systems capable of atomically-precise fabrication.
Winning in the Experimental category for 2007 is J. Fraser Stoddart, Fred Kavli Professor of NanoSystems Sciences, UCLA, and former Director of the California NanoSystems Institute, who has pioneered the synthesis and assembly of unique active molecular machines for manufacturing into practical nanoscale devices. His many accomplishments in synthetic chemistry have produced functional molecular machines, in particular a 'molecular muscle' for the purposes of amplifying and harnessing molecular mechanical motions, that may ultimately lead to the construction of atomically-precise products through the use of molecular machine systems.
2007 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize Finalists Announced
The 2007 finalists for the Experimental prize are:
The 2007 Finalists for the Theory prize are:
2007 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize for Theoretical and Experimental Molecular Nanotechnology
Two prizes in the amount of $5,000 each will be awarded to the researchers whose recent work has most advanced the achievement of Feynman's goal for nanotechnology: molecular manufacturing, defined as the construction of atomically-precise products through the use of molecular machine systems. Separate prizes will be awarded for theoretical work and for experimental work. The winners of this year's prizes will be announced at the Feynman Prize luncheon on October 9, 2007, in conjunction with
Productive Nanosystems: 14th Foresight Conference on Advanced Nanotechnology, October 9-10, 2007, DoubleTree Crystal City in Arlington, VA.
This prize is given in honor of Richard P. Feynman who, in 1959, gave a visionary talk at Caltech in which he said "The problems of chemistry and biology can be greatly helped if our ability to see what we are doing, and to do things on an atomic level, is ultimately developed — a development which I think cannot be avoided."
Selection Committee for the 2007 Prizes
A committee chaired by a previous Feynman Prize recipient will be asked to select this year's honorees.
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