Nano pioneer dies after cancer battle
One of the founding fathers of nanotechnology has died at the age of 62. Nobel laureate Richard Smalley, a Rice University professor who helped discover buckyballs, the soccer ball-shaped form of carbon, and championed the field of nanotechnology. Smalley, who had battled cancer, died at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, said a statement from Rice University, the institute where Smalley was based.
"We will miss Rick's brilliance, commitment, energy, enthusiasm and humanity," Rice President David Leebron said.
He shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry with fellow Rice chemist Robert Curl and British chemist Sir Harold Kroto for the discovery of the new form of carbon, which they dubbed buckminsterfullerene -- buckyballs for short -- because of its resemblance to the geodesic domes designed by Buckminster Fuller.
"In my view, this was a singular event in the history of nanotechnology," said Neal Lane, a senior fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. "It not only created a whole new field of 'fullerene chemistry,' it immediately made feasible the notion of making things from the bottom up, just as physicist Richard Feynman had predicted 50 years earlier."
Nanotechnology, for things measured in billionths of a meter, involves manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale to build microscopic devices.
Smalley's research remained focused on the compounds until his death. His leadership helped lead the U.S. to launch the National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2000, the foremost research programme for nanotechnology in the USA.
"Rick was incredibly creative and had the ability to make his creative vision a reality," said Curl, professor emeritus of chemistry. "His mind was like a searchlight bringing whatever it looked at into clarity."
Smalley was named one of the top 50 most influential people in the microelectronics manufacturing industry by European Semiconductor earlier this year.
