In a special ceremony at the Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, December 3rd, Greek-American Professor A. Paul Alivisatos, a pioneer in nanoscience and nanotechnology, was awarded with the Commander of the Order of Honor by the Hellenic Republic for his contribution to Science.
The decoration, on behalf of the President of the Hellenic Republic, was presented by the Ambassador of Greece to the United States, Mr. Christos Panagopoulos, who praised the work and achievements of the Greek-American professor, once hailed as “one of the fathers of nanoscience.”
“I really am deeply honored to receive this award from my homeland of Greece. I was educated in Greece, and the years that I spent there changed my life forever,” said prof. Alivisatos, while accepting the award. “To all the people of Greece I want to say a deep thank you for the effect that you had on me as a young person, which is what has enabled me to go on later in my life and to have some accomplishments in the science world. I also want to say to all the people of Greece how much we all hope that you will be optimistic about the future and built something very special in Greece.”
Dr. Alivisatos also made a link between his field of expertise and ancient Greece by saying that, as most great things, nanotechnology finds its roots in Democritus’ atomic theory.
A. Paul Alivisatos, Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Berkeley’s Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering and Director of Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute, was also a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013. Dr. Alivizatos spent his early years in Chicago until the age of 10, when his family moved back to Athens, Greece, where he stayed until his high school graduation. He earned his B.A in Chemistry at the University of Chicago with honors and his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics at UC Berkeley.
