Gábor A. Somorjai facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gábor A. Somorjai
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| Born | May 4, 1935 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Budapest University of Technology and Economics |
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Notable work
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University of California, Berkeley |
| Awards | Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1998) National Medal of Science (2001) Irving Langmuir Award (2007) William H. Nichols Medal (2015) Enrico Fermi Award (2023) |
Gabor A. Somorjai, born on May 4, 1935, is a famous professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a top expert in a field called surface chemistry and catalysis. This means he studies what happens on the very top layer of materials, especially how metal surfaces help chemical reactions happen faster.
For his important work, Professor Somorjai has received many big awards. These include the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1998 and the National Medal of Science in 2002. He also won the Priestley Medal in 2008, which is a very high honor in chemistry.
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His Early Life and Journey
Gabor Somorjai was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1935. His family was Jewish. During World War II, in 1944, a brave man named Raoul Wallenberg helped save Gabor, his mother, and his sister from the Nazis. Wallenberg gave them special Swedish passports, which protected them from being sent to terrible camps. While Gabor's father survived the camps, many other family members did not.
In 1956, Gabor was studying chemical engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He took part in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, a fight for freedom against the Soviet Union. After the Soviet invasion, he left Hungary and moved to the United States.
He continued his studies at Berkeley and earned his doctorate degree in 1960. After working for a few years at IBM in New York, he returned to Berkeley in 1964 as a professor.
Amazing Discoveries in Chemistry
In the 1950s and 1960s, new tools like low-energy electron diffraction changed how scientists studied surfaces. Early on, scientists mostly looked at surfaces like silicon, which is important for electronics. But Professor Somorjai was more interested in surfaces like platinum, known for its chemical properties.
He made an amazing discovery: chemical reactions often happen at tiny "defects" or imperfections on surfaces. When these defects break, new connections form between atoms. This can turn simple substances into more complex ones. For example, his work helped understand how naphtha can be changed into gasoline.
His research has helped us understand many things, like how things stick together (adhesion), how slippery surfaces are (lubrication and friction), and how gases or liquids attach to surfaces (adsorption). His work is also very important for nanotechnology, which deals with super tiny materials.
In the 1990s, Professor Somorjai teamed up with physicist Yuen-Ron Shen. They developed a special technique called Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy. This method allows scientists to study surface reactions without needing a vacuum chamber. He also uses tools like the atomic force microscope and scanning tunnelling microscope to study reactions at the atomic level, also without a vacuum.
Professor Somorjai's knowledge of surfaces was even used to help the 2002 Winter Olympics. He gave advice on how to make ice-skating surfaces as fast as possible! His research showed that skaters actually glide on a top layer of rapidly vibrating molecules on the ice. This was different from the old idea that skaters slid on a thin layer of liquid water.
Throughout his career, Professor Somorjai has written over a thousand scientific papers and three textbooks. He is now one of the most-cited scientists in surface chemistry and catalysis.
Honors and Awards
Professor Somorjai has received many important honors for his work. He was chosen to be part of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1979. In 1998, he won the Wolf Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to chemistry, sharing it with Professor Gerhard Ertl.
In 2002, he was awarded the National Medal of Science, one of the highest science awards in the United States. The American Chemical Society has also given him several awards, including the Peter Debye Award and the Adamson Award.
In 2008, he received the Priestley Medal, which is the highest award given by the American Chemical Society. This was for his "extraordinarily creative and original contributions to surface science and catalysis." In 2010, he won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Science. Most recently, in 2023, he received the Enrico Fermi Award.
The Somorjai Award
There is even an award named after him! The Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis gives US$5,000 and a certificate. It is given every year to recognize excellent research in the field of catalysis. The award is supported by the Gabor A. and Judith K. Somorjai Endowment Fund.
The Gabor A. and Judith K. Somorjai Visiting Miller Professorship Award
This award was created in 2011. It helps visiting scientists in chemical sciences come to the Miller Institute at the University of California Berkeley for a month. The Somorjais wanted to support other scientists in their field. The first award was given in 2013 to Angelos Michaelides.
See also
- List of chemistry awards
