Award recognizes pioneering research that transformed the field of nanoscience
University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos was awarded the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award—one of the most prestigious science and technology honors bestowed by the U.S. government—at a Jan. 10 ceremony in Washington, D.C.
A pioneering figure in the field of nanoscience, Alivisatos shared the honor with Prof. Héctor D. Abruña of Cornell University and John H. Nuckolls, the former director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Created in 1956, the award recognizes individuals who have made fundamental contributions to energy science and technology.
Alivisatos’ research “revolutionized the field of nanochemistry,” said Geraldine Richmond, the U.S. Under Secretary for Science and Innovation. “His work on nanocrystals has paved the way for energy-efficient technologies, advanced optical devices and medical diagnostics, contributing to global safety and environmental economic development. His groundbreaking ideas and discoveries have transformed nanochemistry and enabled new classes of commercially available electronic devices and materials.”
The Fermi Award was established in memory of the late Nobel Prize-winning physicist and UChicago faculty member who helped achieve the historic first nuclear chain reaction at UChicago in 1942. It encourages excellence in research and honors scientists, engineers and policymakers whose work benefits humanity.
During his remarks at the ceremony, Alivisatos said it was a “incredible honor” to receive the Fermi Award. He thanked the “amazing community” of students, scholars and staff in his research group who helped contribute to a deeper understanding of the “tiny but mighty” nanocrystals.
“Above all, I personally am an institutionalist,” said Alivisatos, who is the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the College. “This award, while directed at me personally, is really an award to the extraordinary institutions that I have benefited from.”
Reflecting on his career, Alivisatos, AB’81, recalled the moment he became inspired to study nanoscience as a 20-year-old UChicago student. He was sitting in Harper Memorial Library, trying to make sense of a lab he’d just left—an experiment in which he tracked the growth of whisker-shaped wires by the way that atoms traveled along them. In that moment, “I fell in love, if you like, with the dance of atoms,” he said.
“In myself, the younger me in that library, I see something much larger than that moment of inspiration,” he continued. “It’s an entire university, the University of Chicago, which is a community of scholars who love knowledge so much that they impress its inestimable value on young people. They honor us that way, and we honor them by carrying through this idea of carefully, over time, layer by layer, we reveal and understand everything that’s going on underneath. That’s the ethos, and it’s beautiful.”
“His groundbreaking ideas and discoveries have transformed nanochemistry.”
—Geraldine Richmond, Under Secretary for Science and Innovation
Alivisatos is the latest member of the UChicago community to win the prestigious Fermi Award. Of the 71 individuals who have received the award, more than a quarter have been UChicago faculty members or alumni. Past winners include former faculty members Mortimer Elkind (1996), Richard L. Garwin (1996), Ugo Fano (1995), Leon Lederman (1992), Robert R. Wilson (1984), Herbert L. Anderson (1982), Edward Teller (1962) and Glenn T. Seaborg (1959). Alumni recipients include Mildred Dresselhaus (2010) (PhD’58), John B. Goodenough (2009) (PhD’52), Arthur H. Rosenfeld (2005) (PhD’54), John N. Bahcall (2003) (SM’57), Martin Kamen (1995) (SB’33, PhD’36), Liane Brauch Russell (1993) (PhD’49), Marshall N. Rosenbluth (1985) (PhD’49), Alvin M. Weinberg (1980) (SB’35, SB’36, PhD’39), William L. Russell (1976) (PhD’37), Harold M. Agnew (1978) (MS’48, PhD’49) and Ernest O. Lawrence (1957).
The honor is the second this year for Alivisatos, who this June was named one of the recipients of the 2024 Kavli Award in Nanoscience. His other awards include the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Priestley Medal and the international BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award.
