White House to Honor Paul Alivisatos with National Medal of Science

Paul Alivisatos
Paul Alivisatos, director of the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute, will receive the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony next year.

(Adapted from a release published by UC Berkeley)

December 22, 2015

Paul Alivisatos, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab, has been selected to receive the National Medical of Science.

Alivasatos is among nine chosen to receive the nation’s top honors in science, the White House announced today. Since the National Medal of Science was first awarded in 1959, 35 faculty members – 15 of them still at UC Berkeley – have received the honor.

“Science and technology are fundamental to solving some of our Nation’s biggest challenges,” President Obama said in a statement. “The knowledge produced by these Americans today will carry our country’s legacy of innovation forward and continue to help countless others around the world. Their work is a testament to American ingenuity.”

Chenming Hu
Chenming Hu of UC Berkeley was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Alivisatos, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, is the Samsung Distinguished Chair in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Berkeley, a professor in the departments of materials science and chemistry and the director of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute. An award-winning chemist and internationally recognized authority on the fabrication of nanocrystals and their use in solar energy applications, he is the scientific founder of two prominent nanotechnology companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corp, now a part of Life Tech.

Also from Berkeley, Chenming Hu was honored with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Hu, who was elected last week to the National Academy of Inventors, is the TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) Distinguished Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is well-known for innovations, in particular the FinFET (a type of field-effect transistor), that have allowed the semiconductor industry to produce smaller yet more reliable and higher-performing integrated circuits.

The medals will be presented next year during a White House ceremony.

See also: Announcement by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Nanoscience