Harold Kroto

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Harold Kroto

Sir Harold Walter Kroto KBE , FRS , Ph.D (born 7 October, 1939) is an English chemist and one of the winners of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

He spent a large part of his working career at the University of Sussex, and is currently on faculty at Florida State University.

Early life

Both his parents were born in Berlin but came to Great Britain in the 1930s as refugees from the Nazis because his father was Jewish.

He was raised in Bolton, Lancashire, England, where he attended Bolton School, where he was a contemporary of the highly acclaimed actor Sir Ian McKellen. In 1955 the family name was shortened to Kroto.

As a child, he became fascinated by a Meccano set. Kroto credits Meccano — amongst other things — with developing skills useful in scientific research. He was raised Jewish, but the religion never made any sense to him.

He now claims to have four "religions": humanism, atheism, amnesty-internationalism and humourism. He developed an interest in chemistry, physics, and mathematics in secondary school, and because his sixth form chemistry teacher (Harry Heaney - who subsequently became a University Professor) felt that the University of Sheffield had the best chemistry department in the United Kingdom, he went to Sheffield.

In 1963 he married the former Margaret Henrietta Hunter (now Margaret, Lady Kroto).

Early work

Among other things such as making the first phosphaalkenes (compounds with carbon phosphorus double bonds), his doctoral studies included some unpublished research on carbon suboxide, O=C=C=C=O, and this led to a general interest in molecules containing chains of carbon atoms with numerous multiple bonds. He started his work with an interest in organic chemistry, but when he learned about spectroscopy it inclined him to quantum chemistry.

After postdoctoral research at the National Research Council in Canada and Bell Laboratories in the USA he began teaching and research at the University of Sussex in England in 1967. He became a full professor in 1985, and a Royal Society Research Professor from 1991 – 2001.

Subsequent work

Trying to explain them led to the discovery of the C₆₀ molecule. (See buckminsterfullerene.) He heard of laser spectroscopy work being done by Richard Smalley and Robert Curl at Rice University in Texas. He suggested that they should use the Rice apparatus to simulate the carbon chemistry that occurs in the atmosphere of a carbon star.

The experiment carried out in September 1985 not only proved that carbon stars could produce the chains but revealed an amazing, serendipitous result - the totally unexpected existence of the C₆₀ species. The three scientists carried out the work with graduate students Jim Heath (now a full Professor at Cal. Tech.), Sean O'Brien (now at Texas Instruments), and Yuan Liu (now at Oak Ridge). The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was shared by Curl, Kroto and Smalley in 1996.

In 1995 he jointly set up the Vega Science Trust a UK educational charity (see [www.vega.org.uk]) to create high quality science films for TV and Internet Broadcast. Vega has produced some 92 programmes of which 50 have been broadcast on BBC TV in the late-night slots all programmes stream for free from the Vega website. Viewing figures vary from 600,000 to 300,000.

He presently carries out research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

Awards and Honours

His alma mater, the University of Sheffield, awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1995 at the undergraduate degree congregation.

On 29 November, 2004, Kroto announced he was to return his honorary degree from the University of Exeter, in protest over the closure of their Department of Chemistry.

He was awarded the 2004 Copley Medal of the Royal Society.

On 17 June, 2005, the University of Surrey conferred an honorary doctorate on him at an undergraduate degree ceremony. (see [link]) University of Surrey Press Release.

External links

• [Harry Kroto autobiography from Nobel foundation]
• [Sir Harry Kroto FRS - Chemical architecture] from the Royal Society
• [Harry Kroto homepage at the University of Sussex]
• [Professor Harry Kroto]
• [Vega Science Trust]
• [Harry Kroto personal website]
• [Florida State University page]

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