Paul Alivisatos, PhD

Armand Paul Alivisatos is the University of California Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor for Research and Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. He is also the Founding Director of the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute (ENSI), a Sr. Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and holds professorships in UC Berkeley’s departments of chemistry and materials science. In addition, he is a founder of two prominent nanotechnology companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corp, now a part of Life Tech.

Groundbreaking contributions to the fundamental physical chemistry of nanocrystals are the hallmarks of Alivisatos’ distinguished career. His research accomplishments include studies of the scaling laws governing the optical, electrical, structural, and thermodynamic properties of nanocrystals. He developed methods to synthesize size and shape controlled nanocrystals, and developed methods for preparing branched, hollow, nested, and segmented nanocrystals. In his research, he has demonstrated key applications of nanocrystals in biological imaging and renewable energy. He played a critical role in the establishment of the Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy’s Nanoscale Science Research Center; and was the facility’s founding director. He is the founding editor of Nano Letters, a leading scientific publication of the American Chemical Society in nanoscience.

Alivisatos has been recognized for his accomplishments, with awards such as the Dan David Prize, the National Medal of Science, the Spiers Memorial Award, Axion Award, Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Von Hippel Award, the Linus Pauling Medal, Computation and Engineering’s Nanoscience Prize, the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, the Rank Prize for Optoelectronics, the Eni Award for Energy and Environment, Colloid and Surface Chemistry Award, Coblentz Award for Molecular Spectroscopy and the Thomas Wilson Memorial Prize. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Alivisatos received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry in 1981 from the University of Chicago and Ph.D. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1986. He began his career with UC Berkeley in 1988 and with Berkeley Lab in 1991.