Dr. Sumio Iijima was today awarded with the Balzan Prize 2007 in the field of Nanoscience for his discovery of carbon nanotubes, and in particular the discovery of single walled carbon nanotubes and the study of their properties, by the International Balzan Prize Foundation. The award ceremony took place today in Berne, Switzerland.
The carbon nanotube, discovered in 1991 by Dr. Iijima at NEC¹s Fundamental Research Laboratories (now the Nano Electronics Research Laboratories), is a central material of nanotechnology. A broad range of fields, including electronics, energy and biotechnology, are expected to benefit from application of the carbon nanotube in the future.Dr. Iijima is a Senior Research Fellow at NEC Corporation, Director of the Research Center for Advanced Carbon Materials at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology of Tsukuba (AIST), and Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Meijo University, Nagoya.
Pictures are available for download at: http://www.balzan.org