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Published: Friday 6th October, 2023
Moungi Bawendi, a pioneer in the field of quantum dots and the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry at MIT, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2023. He will be sharing the money with Columbia University’s Louis Brus and Nanocrystals Technology, Inc.’s Alexei Ekimov.
Nanoparticles known as quantum dots can now be found in cutting-edge televisions and are used to shine light on cancerous tumours.
The scientists were recognised for their efforts in identifying and producing quantum dots, which are very small bits of matter that produce a very pure form of light.
Bawendi, a
professor at MIT since 1990, spoke about his experience and told MIT News that he was “surprised and shocked” to hear from the Nobel committee.
He failed his first chemistry test as an undergraduate, an event he described as almost destroyed him.
The 62-year-old of Tunisian and French origins breezed through science classes in high school.
But as a freshman at Harvard in the late 1970s, he was in for a jolting experience.
He told reporters on Wednesday that he was scared by the massive size of the hall and the harsh presence of a proctor since he was accustomed to not needing to prepare for tests.
“I looked at the first question and I couldn’t figure it out, and the second question I couldn’t figure it out,” he recalled.
His final grade was 20 out of a total of 100 points, the lowest of everyone in his class.
“And I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is the end of me, what am I doing here?'”
Bawendi had always had a passion for chemistry, but he just recognised that he had not yet mastered the art of test preparation.
He learned
how to study, something he had never done before, and from then on, he said, he got 100s on almost every test.
To the young students, his advice is straightforward – “Persevere,” and not allow failures “destroy you.”
“It could easily have destroyed me, my first experience with an F, the lowest grade in my class by far,” he said.
Now, Bawendi has paved the ground for the widespread use of quantum dots by revolutionising their production methods.
