UCLA professor J. Fraser Stoddart, director of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), who holds UCLA's Fred Kavli Chair in Nanosystems Sciences, has been named Knight Bachelor for services to chemistry and molecular nanotechnology by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
In addition to personalities from popular culture, such as Paul McCartney and Sean Connery, who have been honored with the title of knight bachelor, Stoddart joins a formidable list of eminent scientists that includes Alexander Fleming, Alexander Todd and Harold Kroto, respectively the discoverers of penicillin, the building blocks of DNA and the C60 molecule.
Stoddart said that when he broke the news -- which "came like a bolt out of the blue" -- to his two daughters, Fiona and Alison, their response was "That's really cool, Dad."
"This special honor is a reflection not only of my own achievements but also the considerable support that I have received from my academic colleagues, my students and, above all, my late wife, Norma," Stoddart said of his knighthood, which was bestowed Dec. 30. "It also recognizes the significance and relevance of chemistry to everyday life and the international standing of CNSI at the beginning of 2007."
Stoddart is ranked by Thomson Scientific as the third most-cited researcher in chemistry for the period from January 1996 to August 2006. He has published more than 770 communications, papers and reviews, and has delivered more than 700 invited lectures around the world.
He is one of the few chemists to have created a new field of chemistry over the past quarter century by introducing an additional bond -- the mechanical bond -- into chemical compounds. Stoddart pioneered the use of molecular recognition and self-assembly to create mechanically interlocked compounds called catenanes (which consist of two or more interlocked rings, as in the links of a chain) and rotaxanes (dumbbell-shaped components with at least one ring threaded in a manner reminiscent of an abacus).
Although in the first generation of these exotic molecular compounds, the components, which move relatively between two states, were indistinguishable, in the second generation, bistability was introduced, resulting in the making of the world's tiniest on/off switches, measuring roughly 1 cubic nanometer in volume. Since then, these molecular switches have been incorporated at high densities into molecular random access memory (RAM) circuits.
The scope of Stoddart's research has broadened over the years -- under the umbrella of activities he calls "molecular Meccano" (a reference to the children's model-construction kit) -- as a result of introducing the two-state molecular switches into devices where actuation becomes the key to their operation. He has, for example, designed and constructed nanovalves that consist of moving parts in the form of numerous switchable rotaxane molecules attached to a tiny sphere of porous glass roughly 500 nanometers in diameter. The channels in the porous glass are long, but they are only a few nanometers in diameter, just big enough to allow small molecules to enter. These nanovalves, which are much smaller than living cells, are capable of crossing cell membranes and are now being adapted for use as highly targeted drug-delivery systems for cancer cells, as well as for harvesting the contents of such cells, after the fashion of a lunar-landing vehicle collecting samples of dust from the surface of the moon.
Stoddart's former graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, inspired by his imagination and creativity, now occupy senior positions in universities, government laboratories and industries throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Australia.
Stoddart came to UCLA in 1997 from England's University of Birmingham, where he had been a professor of organic chemistry since 1990 and had headed the university's School of Chemistry since 1993. In 2005, he received an honorary doctor of science degree from the University of Birmingham, and he received the same honor from the University of Twente in the Netherlands in December 2006.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1942, Stoddart received his bachelor of science (1964) and Ph.D. (1966) degrees from the University of Edinburgh, where he worked with British chemist Sir Edmund Hirst. In 1967, he moved to Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, where he was a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow and then, in 1970, to England's University of Sheffield, where he was first an Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) research fellow and then a faculty lecturer (assistant professor) in chemistry. He was a Science Research Council senior visiting fellow at UCLA in 1978. After spending a three-year "secondment" (1978–81) at the ICI corporate laboratory in Runcorn, England, he returned full-time to the University of Sheffield, where he was promoted to a readership (associate professorship). He moved to the University of Birmingham in 1990.
Stoddart was awarded a doctorate of science by the University of Edinburgh in 1980 for his research into chemistry beyond the molecule. He was also the recipient of the University of Edinburgh's Alumnus of the Year award in 2005, presented annually to a former student for exceptional achievement in arts, science, business, public service or academic life. Previous winners include British politician Lord Steel of Aikwood, novelist Ian Rankin and two-time Olympic medalist Katherine Grainger.
Stoddart is a fellow of the Royal Society (1994), the German Academy of Natural Sciences (1999), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005) and the Science Division of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006). He serves on the international advisory boards of numerous journals, including the Journal of Organic Chemistry, Angewandte Chemie, and Chemistry, A European Journal.
The CNSI, a joint enterprise between UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, is exploring the power and potential of organizing and manipulating matter to engineer "new integrated and emergent systems and devices, by starting down at the nanoscale level, that will aid and abet information technology, energy production, storage and saving, environmental well-being, and the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of chronic and degenerative diseases with an impact that far outstretches our comprehension of life to date," Stoddart said. "The institute's demonstrated ability to attract stellar faculty and awesome students has the potential to lead to the generation of a cadre of scientists, engineers and artists who will bring prosperity and enlightenment to the state of California beyond anything that humankind has witnessed since the onset of civilization."
Nanosystems-related research is performed on a size-scale ranging from 1 nanometer -- about one-billionth of a meter -- to a few hundred nanometers. The DNA molecule is two nanometers wide, roughly 1,000 times smaller than a red blood cell and 10,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. The C60 molecule is less than one nanometer in diameter.
For more information about Stoddart's research, please visit http://stoddart.chem.ucla.edu/. News editors and others are also referred to an interview with Stoddart in the September/October 2005 issue of Science Watch (http://www.sciencewatch.com/sept-oct2005/index.html) and to a 2005 article in the journal Pure and Applied Chemistry titled "From a Meccano Set to Nano Meccano" (vol. 77, issue 7); this article is available upon request from Stoddart.
About Knight Bachelor
Knighthood, one of the highest civil honors in the United Kingdom, recognizes distinguished contributions to national and international life and is conferred by the queen, on advice from the Office of the Prime Minister. At the conferment ceremony, which usually takes place at Buckingham Palace, the queen's London residence, the knight bachelor kneels before the queen, who lightly touches the top of his shoulder with a ceremonial sword in a procedure known as "dubbing." The knight then stands before the queen, who hands him his insignia and engages in conversation. Knights bachelor are the most ancient of the British knights, with the title having originated during reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). Knights carry the formal title "Sir." Each year, about 20 knighthoods are announced by the queen.
About the Kavli Foundation
Dedicated to the advancement of science for the benefit of humanity, the Kavli Foundation supports scientific research, honors scientific achievement, and promotes public understanding of scientists and their work. The foundation's mission is implemented through an international program of research institutes, prizes, professorships and symposia in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience.
About CNSI
Established in December 2000 by the state of California as one of the University of California's four Institutes of Science and Innovation, the CNSI forges partnerships with private industry as a means to accelerate technological advances for the people of California and society in general. The institute represents an interdisciplinary collaboration between UCLA and UC Santa Barbara faculty from the life and physical sciences, engineering, and medicine. In 2007, the CNSI at UCLA will relocate to a new 180,000-square-foot facility housing a 260-seat theater, wet and dry laboratories, fully outfitted conference rooms and classrooms, and three floors of core facilities including electron microscopes, atomic-force microscopes, X-ray diffractometers, optical microscopies and spectroscopies, and high-throughput robotics. In addition, UCLA is funding 15 jointly-hired CNSI faculty to ensure that the institute will possess the expertise necessary to make rapid progress in nanoscience and nanotechnology amid fierce international competition. For more about the CNSI, please visit http://www.cnsi.ucla.edu/.
About UCLA
California's largest university, UCLA enrolls approximately 38,000 students per year and offers degrees from the UCLA College of Letters and Science and 11 professional schools in dozens of varied disciplines. UCLA consistently ranks among the top five universities and colleges nationally in total research-and-development spending, receiving more than $820 million a year in competitively awarded federal and state grants and contracts. For every $1 state taxpayers invest in UCLA, the university generates almost $9 in economic activity, resulting in an annual $6 billion economic impact on the Greater Los Angeles region. The university's health care network treats 450,000 patients per year. UCLA employs more than 27,000 faculty and staff, has more than 350,000 living alumni and has been home to five Nobel Prize recipients.