Armand Paul
Alivisatos

Armand Paul Alivisatos is an American chemist who serves as the President of the University of Chicago and the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry. He was born in Chicago and spent most of his childhood in Greece, before moving back to his birth city to study chemistry, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in 1981.

From Chicago he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where he gained a PhD in physical chemistry in 1986. After a couple of years working at AT&T Bell labs with the semiconductor nanocrystals pioneer Luis Brus, he returned to Berkeley as an assistant professor. His career at Berkeley spanned over three decades, during which he was strongly affiliated with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and contributed to the development of the Molecular Foundry. He left Berkeley in 2021 and returned to the University of Chicago.

Alivisatos is one of the world’s experts in semiconductor nanocrystals, and his group was the first to demonstrate the use of these tiny particles in bioimaging. His work has also reached practical applications through several startups, including the imaging company Quatum Dot Corporation, the nanocrystals display company Nanosys, and the photovoltaic company Solexant. He played a fundamental role in the dissemination of nanotechnology as the launching editor of the journal Nano Letters.

For his work, Alivisatos has received numerous awards, including the Linus Pauling Medal, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Welch Award in Chemistry and the Priestley Medal. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the American Chemical Society.