Sir Fraser Stoddart, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2016

Sir James Fraser Stoddart FRS FRSE FRSC (born 24 May 1942) is a Scottish-born chemist who is Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry and head of the Stoddart Mechanostereochemistry Group in the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University in the United States. He works in the area of supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology. Stoddart has developed highly efficient syntheses of mechanically-interlocked molecular architectures such as molecular Borromean rings, catenanes and rotaxanes utilizing molecular recognition and molecular self-assembly processes. He has demonstrated that these topologies can be employed as molecular switches. His group has even applied these structures in the fabrication of nanoelectronic devices and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). His efforts have been recognized by numerous awards including the 2007 King Faisal International Prize in Science. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Ben Feringa and Jean-Pierre Sauvage in 2016 for the design and synthesis of molecular machines.

Awards and honours

• 2006, Appointed a Knight Bachelor in the New Year's Honours December 2006, by Queen Elizabeth II.
• 2007, Received the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in recognition for his outstanding and pioneering work in molecular recognition and self-assembly, and the introduction of quick and efficient template-directed synthetic routes to mechanically interlocked molecular compounds, which have changed the way chemists think about molecular switches and machines.

Memberships

• 2014 Membership, National Academy of Sciences, USA
• 2012 Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, USA
• 2011 Honorary Fellowship, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK
• 2008 Honorary Fellowship, Royal Society of Edinburgh, UK
• 2006 Appointed Knight Bachelor by HM Queen Elizabeth II, UK
• 2006 Foreign membership, Science Division of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 2005 Fellowship, American Association for the Advancement of Science, USA
• 1999 Fellowship, Academy of Natural Sciences (Leopoldina), Germany
• 1994 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, UK

Other awards and honours

• 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• 2016 Haworth Memorial Lectureship, Royal Society of Chemistry
• 2014 Centenary Prize Winner, Royal Society of Chemistry
• 2012 Distinguished Citizen Award, Illinois Saint Andrew Society, Chicago, USA
• 2010 Royal Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh presented by Duke of Edinburgh
• 2008 Davy Medal of the Royal Society of London
• 2008 American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Award
• 2007 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (Experimental)
• 2007 Albert Einstein World Award of Science
• 2007 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry
• 2007 King Faisal International Prize in Science
• 2007 Jabir Ibn Hayyan (Geber) Medal (Saudi Chemical Society)
• 2005 University of Edinburgh Alumnus of the Year 2005 Award
• 2004 Nagoya Gold Medal in Organic Chemistry
• 1999 American Chemical Society Arthur C Cope Scholar Award
• 1993 International Izatt-Christensen Award in Macrocyclic Chemistry