Alexey Ekimov facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alexey Ekimov
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| Алексей Екимов | |
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Ekimov in 2023
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| Born | 1945 (age 79–80) |
| Education | Leningrad State University (BS) Ioffe Institute (PhD) |
| Known for | quantum dots confinement energy |
| Awards | USSR State Prize (1976) R. W. Wood Prize (2006) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2023) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemical physics Nanomaterials |
| Institutions | Ioffe Institute Vavilov State Optical Institute |
| Thesis | Quantum Dimensional Phenomena in Semiconductor Microcrystals Russian: Квантовые размерные явления в полупроводниковых микрокристаллах (1989) |
Alexey Ekimov is a Russian scientist who studies how materials behave. He is famous for being one of the first people to research nanomaterials, which are super tiny materials. In 1981, he made an amazing discovery: he found tiny crystals called quantum dots. These special crystals are used in many new technologies today. Because of this important discovery, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2023.
Contents
About Alexey Ekimov
Growing Up and Learning
Alexey Ekimov was born in Leningrad, which was part of the Soviet Union, in 1945. He loved science and went to Leningrad State University. He graduated in 1967 with a degree in physics. Later, in 1974, he earned his PhD in physics from the Ioffe Institute.
Discovering Tiny Wonders
After finishing his studies, Ekimov started working at the Vavilov State Optical Institute. He began looking closely at special types of glass. He noticed that when these glasses were heated and then cooled, tiny crystals of copper chloride would form inside them. These crystals made the glass appear blue. The smaller the crystals, the bluer the glass looked!
In 1981, Ekimov and his colleague, Alexei A. Onushchenko, made a huge discovery. They found that these tiny crystals showed something called "quantum size effects." This means that because the crystals were so incredibly small, their properties changed in surprising ways. These tiny semiconductor crystals are now known as quantum dots.
Ekimov continued to study these amazing tiny dots. He worked with another scientist, Alexander Efros, to develop a theory about how these tiny particles behave. This theory is called quantum confinement.
Since 1999, Alexey Ekimov has been living and working in the United States. He is a scientist for a company called Nanocrystals Technology, which is in New York State.
Big Awards and Recognition
Alexey Ekimov has received many important awards for his scientific work.
- In 1975, he was given the USSR State Prize for his research on how electrons spin in semiconductors.
- In 2006, he shared the R. W. Wood Prize with Alexander Efros and Louis E. Brus. They won this award for finding nanocrystal quantum dots and for their early studies on how these dots work with light and electricity.
- In 2023, Ekimov, along with Louis E. Brus and Moungi Bawendi, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They were honored "for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots." This is one of the highest awards a scientist can receive!
