The scientists Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov have won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots”, which illuminate computer monitors and television screens and are used by doctors to map tumours, the Nobel Committee for Chemistry said in a statement on Wednesday, October 4, 2023.

Born in Paris to a French mother and Tunisian father, Moungi Bawendi is among “The Nobel Laureates …who have succeeded in producing particles so small that their properties are determined by quantum phenomena. The particles, which are called quantum dots, are now of great importance in nanotechnology,” according to the same source.