Nobel laureate Moungi Bawendi joins President Chiang for Presidential Lecture

Nobel laureate Moungi Bawendi joined President Mung Chiang on Thursday (April 25) for a Presidential Lecture Series conversation about his pioneering research in the synthesis of quantum dots, which are extremely small objects whose unusual quantum properties depend on their size. A video of the conversation is available online.

Bawendi grew up in France, Tunisia and the United States, living in West Lafayette while his parents taught at Purdue University. He attended the West Lafayette Intermediate School and Jr./Sr. High School, graduating in 1978. While in high school, he also took three courses at Purdue University. Currently Bawendi is the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Co-awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Bawendi shared the honor with Russian-born American physicist Aleksey Yekimov and American physical chemist Louis Brus. Quantum dots synthesis he developed has found applications in cancer detection, solar energy, television displays and, potentially, semiconductor fabrication.

Along with 600 attendants from the university, local schools and community, Bawendi and Chiang discussed a broad range of topics — from the approach he took in the breakthrough research and the use of AI in scientific exploration to Bawendi’s time as a local high school student and the moment he received the phone call about winning the Nobel Prize.