Feynman Prizes in nanotechnology awarded to Bartosz A. Grzybowski and Franz J. Giessibl
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Foresight Institute announced the laureates for the 2016 Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes.

Prof. Giessibl with Julia Bossmann, Foresight President & CEO
Foresight Institute

Prof. Grzybowski (center) receiving the 2016 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize for Theory from Foresight Treasurer & COO Steve Burgess (left) and Foresight President & CEO Julia Bossmann
Foresight Institute


Established in 1993, The Feynman prize was named in honor of pioneer physicist Richard Feynman. The prize is given in two categories of nanotechnology, one for experiment and the other for theory. For the past 23 years, it has highlighted researchers whose recent work has most advanced the achievement of Feynman’s goal for nanotechnology: the construction of atomically-precise products through the use of productive nanosystems.
“The Foresight Institute Feynman Prize in nanotechnology is an award that recognizes progress toward the most visionary objectives in n anotechnology,” said Julia Bossmann, President of Foresight Institute. “Our laureates realize that big innovation is possible on the nanoscale. The prize acknowledges these pioneering scientists and inspires others to follow their lead.”
The 2016 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize for Theory was awarded to Prof. Bartosz A. Grzybowski and the prize for Experiment was awarded to Prof. Franz J. Giessibl.
Bartosz A. Grzybowski is a Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Bioengineering in the Department of Chemistry at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Korea. He is a Group Leader at Korea’s Center for Soft and Living Matter within the Institute for Basic Science, as well as a professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Prof. Grzybowski has looked beyond individual nano-objects and their static assemblies to focus on systems that perform desired functions. Applying this systems approach to organic synthesis, he developed a model that, after training on a diverse set of reactions, was able to accurately estimate the outcomes of organic reactions. Such data-driven analyses of chemical syntheses combined with network theory and Artificial Intelligence algorithms led to optimized pathways for completely de novo and fully automated design of syntheses of complex targets, culminating in the Chematica expert system to combine vast amounts of chemical knowledge and plan synthesis pathways toward both known and previously unexplored targets.
Franz J. Giessibl is the Chair of the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics in the Department of Physics, University of Regensburg, Germany. Prof. Giessibl pioneered major advancements in scanning probe microscopy for imaging and manipulating individual atoms, including the first achievement of atomic resolution by frequency modulation atomic force microscopy, inventing the qPlus sensor-based atomic force microscopy technique, and achieving subatomic resolution and the visualization of individual chemical bonds. Further advances resulted from tips with defined chemical composition and structure, improved understanding of tip-sample interactions, lateral force microscopy, and the combination of force microscopy with scanning tunneling spectroscopy and density functional theory.