It is with deep regret and sadness that we report that Nobel Laureate and UCLA Professor Emeritus Sir Fraser Stoddart passed away at the age of 82 on December 30, 2024. The funeral will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, on February 3. In honor of Sir Fraser’s legacy, the family requests that donations in lieu of flowers are welcomed to support the Fraser and Norma Stoddart Prize at the University of Edinburgh, School of Chemistry.
Sir Fraser revolutionized the field of chemistry through his pioneering work in molecular machines and nanotechnology, earning him the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and inspiring countless innovations in science, engineering, and medicine. Beyond his remarkable achievements, he also forged a significant and enduring connection to UCLA, where his contributions left an indelible mark on the academic community and inspired future generations of researchers.
Sir Fraser joined the UCLA faculty in 1997 as the Saul Winstein Professor of Chemistry, a position that marked a pivotal chapter in his career. At UCLA, he made crucial advancements in the field of molecular machines, conducting much of his Nobel-winning research on molecular design and synthesis. In 2002, he became the Director of the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) and was appointed to the Fred Kavli Chair of NanoSystems Sciences, helping to establish UCLA as a leader in nanotechnology research. After a distinguished career at UCLA, Sir Fraser moved to Northwestern University in 2008, where he continued his groundbreaking work.
During his time at UCLA, Sir Fraser was deeply supported by his wife, Norma, who played a crucial role in his success. A brilliant biochemist herself, Norma was an indispensable partner in both Sir Fraser’s personal and professional life. She was known for her scientific flair, empathy for others, and dedication to supporting a diverse and inclusive research group. Sir Fraser often described her as his “secret weapon” and his fiercest critic. Sadly, Norma passed away in 2004, after a long battle with cancer. In tribute to her, Sir Fraser and his family established the Norma Stoddart Prize for Exemplary Citizenship and Excellence in Graduate Research, which honors exceptional academic achievement and service in the style of Norma Stoddart, herself. Since its inception in 2004, Sir Fraser returned to UCLA each year to present the prize to the most deserving recent doctoral graduate.
In 2024, the Department named Sir Fraser as the 2025 Seaborg Medalist — the highest honor the department bestows annually on a scientist for distinguished contributions to science, technological innovation, and/or public service in science. He had planned to attend the Seaborg Symposium and Medal Award dinner on March 21, 2025, where he would be honored and receive the medal. Following his passing, the department decided to proceed with the event as planned, holding it as a memorial celebration of Sir Fraser’s remarkable life, and to present the Seaborg Medal to him posthumously. (See more information below.)
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1942, Sir Fraser was raised in a small farming community, where he developed an early interest in molecular construction, inspired by jigsaw puzzles and construction toys. His academic career spanned the globe, from Edinburgh to Hong Kong with interludes in Canada (Kingston), in Sheffield and Birmingham in England, in Los Angeles, California, and in Evanston, Illinois. He graduated from Edinburgh University with a BSc degree in 1964. He cut his teeth in research investigating the nature of plant gums of the Acacia genus within the School of Carbohydrate Chemistry under Professor Sir Edmund Hirst.
In March 1967, Sir Fraser completed his Ph.D. degree at the Chemistry Department at Edinburgh. He spent the next three years as a National Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at Queen’s University with Professor J. K. N. Jones. Soon after he arrived in Kingston, a communication appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society by Charles Pedersen describing the synthesis of dibenzo[18]crown-6 in excellent yield as a consequence of the templating action of potassium ions. This seminal event marked the beginning of Stoddart’s fascination with chemistry beyond the molecule. Combined with his interest in templation, this led to the template-directed synthesis, based on molecular recognition and self-assembly processes, of a wide range of mechanically interlocked molecules, e.g., catenanes and rotaxanes. Eventually, he conceived of a whole field of chemistry built around what he christened the molecular bond. The Nature of the Mechanical Bond: From Molecules to Machines (Wiley, 2016), written in conjunction with former graduate student, Carson Bruns, defines and documents this field in the style that Fraser and Norma conceived and made famous – brightly colored geometrical shapes that defined units of these mechanically interlocked molecules, the precursors to molecular devices and machines later in his career.
In 1970, Sir Fraser returned to the United Kingdom to take up an Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) Fellowship at Sheffield University before being appointed to a Lectureship in Chemistry. After spending a three-year sabbatical (1978–1981) at the ICI Corporate Laboratory in Runcorn, he returned to Sheffield University where he was promoted to a Readership in Chemistry. It was during his time at ICI that Sir Fraser developed his long-standing interest in compounds containing bipyridinium units as redox-addressable molecular building blocks for incorporation into bistable catenanes and rotaxanes. These mechanically interlocked molecules were introduced as switches into molecular electronic devices and employed subsequently in the syntheses of artificial molecular machines.
In 1990, Sir Fraser was appointed Chair of Organic Chemistry at Birmingham University, where he later served as Head of the School of Chemistry from 1993 to 1997. Stoddart’s chemical accomplishments were attracting national attention at that time, and UCLA began actively pursuing Fraser for the Saul Winstein Chair, after the retirement of the first Winstein Chair, Nobelist Donald Cram. In 1997, to the delight of UCLA and the U.S. chemical community, Fraser and Norma moved to UCLA where he became the second Saul Winstein Chair. In 2002, he also became Director of the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), an institution that started in 2000 with the active involvement of Sir Fraser. He was also appointed to the Fred Kavli Chair of NanoSystems Sciences in 2002. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2007. Sir Fraser, always eager for new challenges, left UCLA in 2008 to join the faculty at Northwestern University as Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry. He also served as Director of the Center for the Chemistry of Integrated Systems (CCIS) from 2010 to 2017. He was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize, with Feringa and Sauvage for their work on molecular machines (see the photograph above).
In 2014, Sir Fraser was appointed to a Thousand Talent Scholarship at Tianjin University in China, in 2015 to an Honorary Professorship of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham in the UK, and in 2020 to the Deanship of the Stoddart Institute of Molecular Science at Zhejiang University in China. He also accepted a part-time appointment as Professor of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
Sir Fraser received numerous honors in addition to the Nobel Prize and Knight Bachelor. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the German Academy (Leopoldina) of Natural Sciences, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Additionally, he was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Sir Fraser was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the US National Academy of Sciences, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He was also a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Australian Academy of Science.
Sir Fraser also ventured into entrepreneurship, co-founding the skincare brand Noble Panacea in 2019 and the hydrogen storage startup H2MOF in 2021.
In 2023, seeking new challenges and creating a new state-of-the-art laboratory for his still world-leading research in mechanical bonds and artificial molecular machines, Sir Fraser moved to the University of Hong Kong as Chair Professor of Chemistry.
His legacy extends globally, a testament to his vision and commitment to advancing science worldwide. Besides the lasting impact of his creation of a field of science, he will be forever remembered for his commitment to the education and nurturing of young scientists from all over the world.
A self-described “Twitter monster”, Sir Fraser documented much of his visits to UCLA on his feed, @sirfrasersays.
A wonderful obituary of Sir Fraser by Professor David Leigh (University of Manchester) was recently published in Nature.
2025 UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Seaborg Symposium and Medal Award Dinner
The Seaborg Symposium, to be held on March 21, 2025, will feature talks by five distinguished scientists who were influenced by Sir Fraser’s work: Prof. Anne-Sophie Duwez (Distinguished Professor University of Liège, Département de Chimie), Prof. Ben L. Feringa (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 2016, University of Groningen, Stratingh Institute for Chemistry), Prof. Kendall Houk (Distinguished Professor, UCLA), Prof. Nathalie Katsonis (Distinguished Professor, University of Groningen, Stratingh Institute for Chemistry), and Prof. Omar Yaghi (The James and Neeltje Tretter Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Chemistry). The symposium will also honor the 2025 Norma Stoddart Prize graduate student alumni winner.
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 closer to the event here. If you would like to be notified when the registration website is available, please contact at Isaiah Gutierrez, events@chem.ucla.edu.
Fraser and Norma Stoddart Chair in Contemporary Chemistry at UCLA
Before his passing, Sir Fraser, along with the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and former members of his research group at UCLA, launched a campaign to endow the Fraser and Norma Stoddart Chair in Contemporary Chemistry at UCLA.
The goal is to create an endowed chair to recruit an organic chemist who is doing forward-looking science in Stoddart’s style. The objective is to raise a total of $2 million to endow a full chair. Sir Fraser donated $500,000 to seed the endowment, and UCLA has pledged to match those funds. For any additional donated funds, UCLA will match up to another $500,000. The interest from this endowment will be used by the future chairholder for their research interests, including support for graduate students and postdocs, and for activities to honor the memory of Fraser Stoddart. To learn more, please visit here.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
