The White House has announced that Paul Alivisatos, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), award-winning chemist and internationally recognised authority on the fabrication of nanocrystals and their use in solar energy applications, has won the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest honour for lifetime achievement in fields of scientific research.

Alivisatos, 56, who has been hailed as “one of the fathers of nanoscience” for his ground-breaking research in quantum dots and other artificial nanostructures, holds appointments with the University of California Berkeley as the Samsung Distinguished Chair in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and is the director of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at Berkeley.

He is also a scientific founder of two prominent nanotechnology companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corp.

Details about this year’s nine honorees, including their citations, will be made available at a public ceremony scheduled for early in 2016.

Alivisatos becomes the 15th Berkeley Lab scientist to win the National Medal of Science, which was established by Congress in 1959 as a Presidential Award.