Robert Curl

Robert Curl
Robert Floyd Curl Jr.
Curl in 2009
Born(1933-08-23)August 23, 1933
DiedJuly 3, 2022(2022-07-03) (aged 88)
Alma materRice Institute, BA; University of California, Berkeley, PhD
Known forThe discovery of fullerenes
AwardsNobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996. Cross-cultural ambassador at Sorbonne University UNESCO Club
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry
InstitutionsRice University, Harvard University
ThesisSome spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties of molecules (1957)
Doctoral advisorKenneth Pitzer
Doctoral studentsLihong V. Wang
James L. Kinsey

Robert Floyd Curl Jr. (August 23, 1933 – July 3, 2022) was an American chemist who was Pitzer–Schlumberger Professor of Natural Sciences and professor of chemistry at Rice University.[1] He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for the discovery of the nanomaterial buckminsterfullerene, and hence the fullerene class of materials, along with Richard Smalley (also of Rice University) and Harold Kroto of the University of Sussex.

  1. ^ "Robert F. Curl". Department of Chemistry, Rice University. Retrieved July 19, 2016.