Trio wins Nobel Chemistry Prize for quantum dots

STOCHOLM

French-born Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus of the United States and Russian-born Alexei Ekimov yesterday won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for research in tiny particles known as quantum dots.

The trio, whose names were leaked in the Swedish press ahead of the announcement, succeeded in producing these tiny components, that "now spread their light from televisions and LED lamps, and can also guide surgeons when they remove tumor tissue, among many other things," the jury said.

The names of the recipients had already been reported by Swedish media, several of which said they had received a press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences that named the three U.S.-based chemists - hours before the academy had even met for a final vote on the winners.

Bawendi, speaking to reporters, said he was "shocked" by the news and had not seen the leaked reports.

Nobel leaks are rare, with the various prize-awarding academies going to great lengths to keep the winners' names under wraps until the announcements.

Bawendi, 62, born in Paris to French and Tunisian parents, is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.

Brus, 80, is a professor at Columbia in New York, and Russian-born Alexei Ekimov works at the U.S.-based Nanocrystals Technology.

The trio will share the $1 million award, receiving it from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.