The UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry is pleased to announce that Professor Paul Alivisatos (UC Berkeley) has been chosen for the 2019 Seaborg Medal in recognition of his seminal contributions to the field of nanotechnology.
We will honor the nanoscience pioneer at the 2019 Seaborg Symposium and Medal Dinner on Saturday, November 23, 2019.
The Seaborg Symposium is the department’s annual celebration, centered around the science of the year’s Seaborg Medalist. For this year’s event we will have an afternoon symposium entitled “The Nanotechnology Revolution”, with talks by Alivisatos and four other prominent nanoscientists – Professors Uri Banin (Hebrew University), Moungi Bawendi (MIT), Dmitri Talapin (University of Chicago), and Sarah Tolbert (UCLA). The symposium will take place at 1 p.m. in the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) auditorium. A poster session by postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students will take place before the symposium in the CNSI lobby starting at noon.
The Glenn T. Seaborg Medal will be presented to Alivisatos at the evening awards banquet at the UCLA Covel Commons Grand Horizon Ballroom. The evening events will begin with a reception on the terrace followed by dinner and the medal awards ceremony, at which the poster session prizes will also be announced.
All are welcome to attend the Seaborg events. The symposium is free of charge but registration is required for the evening reception and dinner. The dinner ticket price and registration information will be available in late October at www.seaborg.ucla.edu. Please plan to join us for these exciting events honoring Alivisatos and his career.
About Professor Paul Alivisatos
Paul Alivisatos is the University of California (UC) Berkeley’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost and Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. He is also the Founding Director of the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute (ENSI), Director Emeritus of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, former UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Research, and holds professorships in UC Berkeley’s departments of chemistry and materials science. In addition, he is a founder of two prominent nanotechnology companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corp, now a part of Life Tech. Groundbreaking contributions to the fundamental physical chemistry of nanocrystals are the hallmarks of Alivisatos’ distinguished career. His research accomplishments include studies of the scaling laws governing the optical, electrical, structural, and thermodynamic properties of nanocrystals. He developed methods to synthesize size and shape controlled nanocrystals, and pioneered methods for preparing branched, hollow, nested, and segmented nanocrystals. Alivisatos’ research has demonstrated key applications of nanocrystals in biological imaging and renewable energy. He played a critical role in the establishment of the Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy’s Nanoscale Science Research Center; and was the facility’s founding director. He is the founding editor of Nano Letters, a leading scientific publication of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in nanoscience. Alivisatos has been widely recognized for his accomplishments with awards including the Dan David Prize, the National Medal of Science, the Welch Award, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Von Hippel Award, and the Linus Pauling Medal. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Alivisatos received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1981 from the University of Chicago and Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1986. He began his career with UC Berkeley in 1988 and with Berkeley Lab in 1991.
About the Glenn T. Seaborg Medal
The Glenn T. Seaborg Medal was first awarded in 1987 to UCLA alumnus Nobel Laureate (1951 Chemistry) Glenn T. Seaborg (BS ’34) (pictured right), one of the most remarkable and influential chemists of the 20th Century and for whom element 106, Seaborgium, is named. The purpose of the medal is to honor persons who have made exceptional scientific contributions in the fields of chemistry or biochemistry. Awarded annually, the winner of the Seaborg Medal is selected by an executive committee of the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
In addition to Seaborg, eight other Nobel Laureates have been honored with the Seaborg Medal – UCLA professors Donald Cram (1989) and Paul Boyer (1998), UCLA alumni Bruce Merrifield (1993) PhD ’49 and Richard Heck (2011) BS ’52/PhD ’54, and Richard Smalley (2002), Harold Varmus (2012), Stefan Hell (2015), and Richard Henderson (2018). To learn more, visit the Seaborg Medal Recipients website.
www.seaborg.ucla.edu Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
