A Northwestern University professor was awarded science's biggest prize for his work at the smallest scale of technology.
Sir Fraser Stoddart, professor of chemistry at Northwestern University and an Evanston resident, was among three chemists awarded a Nobel Prize Wednesday for their "design and synthesis of molecular machines." The three laureates, also including Jean-Pierre Sauvage, University of Strasbourg, France, and Bernard L. Feringa, University of Groningen, Netherlands, will share the $930,000 prize.
"They have developed molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained in a release. "The development of computing demonstrates how the miniaturization of technology can lead to a revolution. The 2016 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry have miniaturized machines and taken chemistry to a new dimension."
This work can be used in the development of new materials, sensors and energy storage systems, the Academy added. They likened it to when engineers debuted the first electric motor in the 1830s, giving way to "electric trains, washing machines, fans and food processors" to name a few applications.
The academy pointed to Stoddart's 1991 development of a rotaxane, in which he was able to thread "a molecular ring onto a thin molecular axle and demonstrated that the ring was able to move along the axle." Through his work on rotaxanes, he created a molecular lift, molecular muscle and a molecular computer chip.
By bringing a mechanical bond into chemical compounds, he opened up a new field of chemistry. His work led to the development of artificial molecular switches and motors, which have been implemented in the densest of memory chips and have created controllable and targeted drug delivery systems to treat cancer and other diseases.
“This is a tremendous honor for Professor Stoddart and Northwestern University,” Northwestern President Morton Schapiro said in a statement. “Fraser is a pioneer in the fields of chemistry and integrated nanosystems and a member of an outstanding chemistry department. The University is proud of his many accomplishments.”
