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MIT Professor Moungi Bawendi shares Nobel Prize in Chemistry

For his work on techniques to generate quantum dots of uniform size and color, Bawendi is honored along with Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov.
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Moungi Bawendi stands outside his home, with his dog in the background.
Caption:
Moungi Bawendi is the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry at MIT.
Credits:
Photo: Jodi Hilton
Moungi Bawendi smiles while talking on his cell phone. A framed print of a large clock is in the background.
Caption:
Moungi Bawendi at his home shortly after receiving the news of his Nobel Prize win.
Credits:
Photo: Jodi Hilton
Moungi Bawendi sits on a sofa in his living room, looking at laptop in front of him on a coffee table and speaking into a cell phone. His wife, Rachel Zimmerman, sits in the background taking his photo on her cellphone.
Caption:
Moungi Bawendi and his wife, Rachel Zimmerman, at home shortly after receiving the news about the Nobel Prize.
Credits:
Photo: Jodi Hilton
Moungi Bawendi's head and hands appear against a black background and over a rainbow-colored row of vials
Caption:
Moungi Bawendi
Credits:
Photo: Len Rubenstein

Moungi Bawendi, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry at MIT and a leader in the development of tiny particles known as quantum dots, has won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2023. He will share the prize with Louis Brus of Columbia University and Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology, Inc.

The researchers were honored for their work in discovering and synthesizing quantum dots — tiny particles of matter that emit exceptionally pure light. In its announcement this morning, the Nobel Foundation cited Bawendi for work that “revolutionized the chemical production of quantum dots, resulting in almost perfect particles.”

Bawendi, who has been a professor at MIT since 1990, told MIT News this morning that he felt “surprise and shock” upon receiving the call from the Nobel committee, adding, “It was such an honor to wake up to.”

Quantum dots consist of tiny particles of semiconductor material that are so small that their properties differ from those of the bulk material. Instead, they are governed in part by the laws of quantum mechanics that describe how atoms and subatomic particles behave. When illuminated with ultraviolet light, the dots fluoresce brightly in a range of colors determined by the sizes of the particles.

These tiny particles are now used in many types of biomedical imaging, as well as computer and television displays, and they also hold potential in fields such as photocatalysis and quantum computing.

“It’s hard to think of a more elegant expression of Mind and Hand,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth wrote about Bawendi’s work, in a letter to the MIT community this morning, in reference to MIT’s motto, “Mens et Manus.” “We join Moungi’s family, his department, and his friends and colleagues around the world in celebrating this rare honor.”

Sculpting tiny particles

Quantum dots are particles only a few nanometers in diameter — about one-millionth the size of a pinhead. Since the 1930s, scientists had predicted that particles so tiny would show unusual behavior because at such tiny scales there is less space for a material’s electrons, so they become squeezed together. As a result, it was believed that the particles’ size would influence physical properties such as color.

However, this hypothesis was difficult to test because there were no ways to produce such tiny particles — until the early 1980s, when Ekimov and Brus independently succeeded at creating quantum dots. Working with quantum dots floating freely in a solution, Brus demonstrated that the size of the particles affected the color that they emitted. Ekimov discovered the same phenomenon working with nanoparticles of glass tinted with copper chloride.

The techniques used by Ekimov and Brus, however, did not yield quantum dots of uniform size. In 1993, Bawendi and his students were the first to report a method for synthesizing quantum dots while maintaining precise control over their size.

By systematically varying the conditions under which the quantum dots were crystallized, Bawendi and his research group succeeded in growing nanocrystals of a specific size. At the time, the researchers were interested in making quantum dots so they could further study their unique properties, with no inkling of what they would later become useful for.

“We just pushed and pushed, and we eventually developed a process to make particles good enough for basic science studies, and it turned out the process could be used for far more than that, which we never would have thought at the time,” Bawendi told MIT News.

Since then, he has also devised ways to control the efficiency of the dots’ light emission and to eliminate their tendency to blink on and off, making them more practical for applications in many fields.

Quantum dots are now used in flat screen TVs and other displays, where they generate more vivid images than traditional LED screens. They are also used to label molecules inside cells, allowing them to be imaged more easily, and they have been explored as a tool to guide doctors during surgery by illuminating tissue.

“It’s really great to see how they have been used in so many areas, but it’s not something we were expecting at the time,” says Bawendi, who is also a core member of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT. “We were just interested in studying the materials.”

Introducing Bawendi at an MIT press conference this morning, Kornbluth described his Nobel achievement as “a banner day” for the Institute.

“We cannot imagine anything more electrifying,” Kornbluth said. “Obviously, that excitement reflects our respect for this extraordinary honor, but it runs deeper because you'd be hard pressed to find a community with a greater reverence for the wondrous beauty of basic discovery science and the incredible power of innovation to better our world than the people of MIT. I hope this award and all of this week's science Nobels can serve to remind the nation and the world of why fundamental science deserves our sustained and enthusiastic support.”

A new field of science

Born in Paris to a French mother and Tunisian father, Bawendi moved to West Lafayette, Indiana, as a young boy when his father, a mathematician, became a professor at Purdue University. In 1982, he earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, where as a first-year student, he failed his first chemistry exam. That experience taught him a valuable lesson in perseverance, which he described at today’s press conference.

“You have a setback, but you can persevere and overcome this and learn from your experience, which obviously I did,” he said. “And I could have just decided this wasn't for me, but I liked what I was doing, and so I learned how to become successful as a student.”

Bawendi went on to earn a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1988. As a postdoc, he worked with Brus, who was then at AT&T Bell Laboratories and had recently made his original discovery regarding the properties of different sized quantum dots.

“That was what made me excited to work with him, because it opened up a brand new field of science, which creates a lot of opportunity to make new discoveries,” Bawendi told MIT News.

Scientists are now exploring the possibility of using quantum dots to improve the performance of many other technologies, including solar cells, flexible electronics, and photocatalysts. In recent years, Bawendi’s lab has also developed spectrometers based on quantum dots, which are small enough to fit inside a smartphone camera. Such devices could be used to diagnose diseases, especially skin conditions, or to detect environmental pollutants.

When asked at the press conference what the future might hold for quantum dot research, Bawendi said he expects to be surprised.

“That's a really good question because I'm constantly surprised when I go to conferences about the progress and the directions of the field,” he said. “I think 30 years ago, none of us who started the field could have predicted 30 years later we’d be where we are today. And it's just amazing to me, if you have really great people working on a brand new field with brand new materials, innovation comes out in directions that you can't predict.”

Being at MIT, with its focus on interdisciplinary research, has been a critical factor in his success, Bawendi told MIT News.

“The atmosphere at MIT is really what allowed me to explore other fields of science, which has been key to the advances I’ve been able to make,” he says. “It’s a unique place, and it’s wonderful to be part of it.”

Press Mentions

Nobel Prize Conversations

Prof. Moungi Bawendi, a recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, speaks with Nobel Prize Conversations host Adam Smith about the joys of visualizing quantum mechanics, the inspiration for his Nobel-prize winning work and his love of music. “Being in a place like MIT and being exposed to engineering and other scientific fields and medicine across the river and Harvard Medical School and a lot of startups around here, you really are exposed to so many things that are so interesting and I love that,” says Bawendi. “Those things give me ideas of how to go back to the lab and take different directions.” 

Nature

Nature reporter Neil Savage speaks with former members of Prof. Moungi Bawendi’s research group about their work with Bawendi on synthesizing quantum dots. Manoj Nirmal PhD '96 recalls how, “what I was really intrigued and fascinated by was, it was very different than anything else that was happening in the [chemistry] department.” Christopher Murray PhD '95 rejoiced in the Nobel Prize announcement, saying, “It’s extremely exciting to see that what [Moungi] built is recognized as part of the Nobel prize.”

CBC News

Prof. Moungi Bawendi, recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, speaks with CBC Quirks & Quacks host Bob McDonald about his work in quantum dots and nanotechnology. “I really want to stress that the beginning of this field, we were interested in this because it was a brand new material, it was a size region that no one had investigated before,” says Bawendi. “This was before people talked about nanoscience and nanotechnology, we were just very curious how the properties evolved from the molecular properties… to the bulk properties.”

AFP

Prof. Moungi Bawendi shares his thoughts at an MIT press conference after being named a recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, reports the AFP. “None of us who started this field could have predicted 30 years later, it would be where we are today,” says Bawendi. “And you know it’s just amazing to me. If you have really great people working on a brand new field with brand new materials, innovation comes out in directions that you can’t predict.”

CNN

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Prof. Moungi Bawendi, Prof. Louis Brus of Columbia University and Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology Inc., for their work in the discovery and development of quantum dots, reports Christian Edwards, Katie Hunt and Ed Upright for CNN. Bawendi “changed the chemical production of quantum dots, resulting in what the [Nobel] committee called ‘almost perfect particles,’” they write. “This development allowed dots to be used in applications.”

Financial Times

Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson spotlights Prof. Moungi Bawendi, one of the recipients of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for his work in the production and advancement of quantum dots. Cookson notes that Bawendi “revolutionized the chemical production of quantum dots, resulting in the development of particles suitable for practical applications.”

The Washington Post

Prof. Moungi Bawendi has been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “fundamental discoveries in nanotechnology, particles once considered impossibly small to make,” reports Mark Johnson for The Washington Post. “In 1993, Moungi revolutionized the process, devising a way to create ‘seed,’ or beginner particles that could then be carefully controlled using temperature,” writes Johnson. “The method allowed him to stop the process to achieve particles of just the right size and quality.”

GBH

Prof. Mougni Bawendi is one of three scientists who has been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with quantum dots, reports Sam Turken for GBH. “Bawendi said that when he first started working with quantum dots, he wasn’t thinking of the potential uses for them,” writes Turken. “He merely wanted to study them, but in order to do that, he had to create dots that were of high quality. Once he did that, their benefits became more clear.”

New York Times

Prof. Moungi Bawendi has been honored as one of the recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the discovery and development of quantum dots, reports Emma Bubola and Katrina Miller for The New York Times. Prof. William Tisdale described Bawendi’s prizewinning results as a “key enabling advance, after which the field of quantum dots exploded.” 

The Wall Street Journal

Prof. Moungi Bawendi has been named a recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work and contributions to the field of quantum dots and nanotechnology, reports Brianna Abbott for The Wall Street Journal. “To understand the physics, which was the motivation, we had to create the material,” says Bawendi. “I would never have thought that you could make them at such a large scale and that they would actually make a difference in the consumer area.”

Reuters

Prof. Moungi Bawendi, Prof. Louis Brus of Columbia University and Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology Inc., have been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in the development of quantum dots, which are “now used to create color in flat screens, light emitting diode (LED) lamps and devices that help surgeons see blood vessels in tumors,” reports Niklas Pollard and Ludwig Burger for Reuters. “In 1993, Bawendi revolutionized the production of quantum dots, made up of clusters ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand atoms,” writes Pollard and Burger.

Associated Press

Prof. Moungi Bawendi was selected as one of three recipients of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for contributions to the field of quantum dots and nanotechnology, report David Keyton, Mike Corder and Christina Larson for the Associated Press. “The motivation really is the basic science. A basic understanding, the curiosity of how does the world work?” says Bawendi. “And that’s what drives scientists and academic scientists to do what they do.”

Science

Science reporter Daniel Clery spotlights Prof. Moungi Bawendi, one of the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the advancement of quantum dots. “The process devised by Bawendi’s team led to the wide commercialization of quantum dots, with many companies competing to produce nanocrystals cheaply,” writes Clery.

WBUR

Prof. Moungi Bawendi, one of the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, speaks with Lisa Mullins of WBUR’s All Things Considered. “It's a lot of hard work, a lot of perseverance, and sometimes, you know, you'll work for a few years without seeing any results at all. And then the results come maybe just in a few weeks, and suddenly it happens,” says Bawendi of his advice to students on dealing with progress and failures in their research. “Believing in the end point and just, you know, when things don't work, learning how to solve problems and go maybe a little slightly different direction."

STAT

Prof. Moungi Bawendi has been named one of three winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots, tiny particles that have fueled innovations in nanotechnology from televisions to mapping different tissues in the body,” reports Andrew Joseph for STAT. “Bawendi invented a method for making the dots with high-quality consistency,” explains Joseph.

Nature

Prof. Moungi Bawendi has been named one of the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the study and development of quantum dots, “tiny molecules that interact with light in unusual ways,” reports Katharine Sanderson for Nature. “I didn’t think it would be me that would get this prize because we’re all working together on this,” says Bawendi. “There’s still a lot of exciting work to be done in this field.”

The Boston Globe

Boston Globe reporter Aaron Pressman and John R. Ellement spotlight Prof. Moungi Bawendi, one of the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for his work in the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots, “tiny particles used in an array of technologies.” Bawendi noted that he was “deeply honored and surprised and shocked” to receive a Nobel Prize. He added that MIT is, “just a different place in the world. And I’m so grateful that MIT supported me through my career all these years.”

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