Tunis: Nobel laureate in chemistry, Moungi Bawendi gave a lecture on Tuesday evening at a packed conference hall of the International Diplomatic Academy in Tunis.
The lecture was attended by Minister Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad, Nabil Ammar ambassadors, diplomats, academics, researchers and senior foreign ministry officials.
Bawendi’s visit to Tunisia, which follows his sharing of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with American Louis Brus and Russian Alexey Ekimov, was at the invitation of the University of Tunis and the Association of Graduates of the National Engineering School.
The trio of scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery of colloidal quantum dots: nanoparticles of semiconductor material.
Bawendi told TAP his purpose in visiting Tunisia was to explain his scientific research and academic life, stressing that his Nobel Prize for the discovery and analysis of quantum dots underscores the profound importance of scientific research in human life.
For him, res
earchers, students or pupils do not need to be naturally brilliant to succeed; what they need is curiosity, a thirst for knowledge, resilience and a passion for learning and discovery.
Drawing on his experience, Bawendi urged students and researchers to engage in innovative and evolving research topics, rather than focusing solely on classical subjects.
He emphasised the need to believe in their abilities and not to despair during their research or experiments, but to persevere in their efforts to achieve results.
During his lecture at the International Diplomatic Academy in Tunis, Bawendi delved into his diverse research endeavours, highlighting that in 1993 he led a revolution in the chemical production of quantum dots, resulting in near-perfect molecules, a high quality imperative for their applications.
Bawendi claims that these infinitesimally small nanoparticles of nanotechnology radiate from television screens to LED lights, can even guide surgeons as they remove tumour tissue, and encompass a wide
range of applications and burgeoning uses in medicine and technology.
Thanks to the groundbreaking efforts of these pioneering scientists, quantum dots now illuminate computer monitors and television screens based on QLED technology. They also add nuance to the light of some LED lamps, and biochemists and doctors use them to map biological tissue.
“Thirty years ago, all we had was curiosity, and today we are reaping the rewards of that curiosity,” said Bawendi.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse