Biography
A. Paul Alivisatos
Paul Alivisatos attended
the University of
Chicago, where he
received a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry with Honors in 1981. He continued his
graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley,
where he worked under the supervision of Charles Harris. His Ph.D. thesis
concerned the photophysics of electronically excited molecules near metal and
semiconductor surfaces. In 1986, he went to AT&T Bell Labs where he worked
with Louis Brus as a postdoctoral, and it was at this time that he first became
involved in research related to Nanotechnology. In 1988, he joined the faculty
of the University of California, Berkeley,
where he is presently Professor of Chemistry and Materials Sciences.?He has received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
fellowship, the ACS Exxon Solid State Chemistry Fellowship, the Coblentz Award,
the Wilson Prize at Harvard, the Materials Research Society Outstanding Young
Investigator Award, the ACS Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry (2004), the
Rank Prize (2006), the University
of Chicago Distinguished Alumni Award
(2006), the Eni Italgas Prize for Energy and Environment (2006), the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award (2007),
and the Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Nanoscience, MRS (2008).
He is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American
Association for the Advancement of Science.?In 2004, he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.?He is the Editor of the American Chemical
Society Journal and Nano Letters.
He is a senior member
of the technical staff at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he has
served as Director for the Materials Sciences Division (2002-2008); Associate
Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences (2005-2008); Deputy Director
of the Laboratory (2008-2009); and Director of the Laboratory (2009-present).
His research
concerns the structural, thermodynamic, optical, and electrical properties of
colloidal inorganic nanocrystals. He investigates the fundamental physical and
chemical properties of nanocrystals and also works to develop practical
applications of these new materials in biomedicine and renewable energy.