Contents
Louis E. Brus
Discovering how the size of tiny semiconductor crystals changes their properties.
Quantum dots in solution · Size and energy
- Born
- 10 August 1943
- Birthplace
- Cleveland, United States
- Died
- 11 January 2026
More people
Louis E. Brus
Louis Brus was an American chemist and quantum-dot pioneer. He shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Alexei Ekimov and Moungi Bawendi for work that helped establish a new class of useful nanomaterials.
Early life
Midwestern childhood
Grew up in several Midwestern communities and became interested in physics and chemistry at school.
Naval scholarship
Studied chemical physics at Rice before earning a doctorate at Columbia in 1969.
Career
- 1969
Naval research
Worked at the US Naval Research Laboratory.
- 1973
Bell Laboratories
Joined the industrial laboratory where he investigated tiny semiconductor particles.
- 1996
Columbia faculty
Returned to Columbia as a professor.
- 2023
Nobel Prize
Shared the Chemistry Prize for quantum dots.
Contributions
Quantum dots in solution
Observed size-dependent quantum effects in semiconductor particles.
Size and energy
Developed a model relating nanocrystal size to electronic behaviour.
Single-dot blinking
Co-authored research on intermittent light emission from individual nanocrystals.
Beyond the lab
Family
Married violinist Marilyn Drennan; they had three children.
Outdoors
Enjoyed family holidays and backpacking in western US mountains.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Nobel biography ↗Scientific obituary and birth date ↗Photo: Credit Line: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives. Copyrighted free use · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
