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(4 Oct 2023) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Fort Lauderdale, Florida - 4 October 2023 1. Nobel prize winner in chemistry Alexei Ekimov 2. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexei Ekimov, Nobel prize winner in chemistry: “At first, of course, I thought my friends were playing a joke on me. But then when I found out it was the Nobel Committee, I asked them: ‘where can I see it (the announcement)?’, they told me to go on their website, of the Nobel Prize Committee, because the presentation of the awardees in chemistry for this year would begin in 15 minutes. I went on there and with some surprise really did find our photographs there, of myself and my colleagues, and I thought ok, it looks like it really is true.” 3. Ekimov walking 4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexei Ekimov, Nobel prize winner in chemistry: “We only had a general sense that this fundamental phenomenon (quantum dots) must lead to great progress in the future, whether this would be in a year, or as it turned out, in several decades. Now there are many other discoveries that have been made, but that’s only recently. Back then, of course, we didn’t have any specific thoughts (about the potential of the discovery), other than that we did a good job to experimentally prove an important theory.” 5. Various STILLS of Ekimov 6. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexei Ekimov, Nobel prize winner in chemistry: “I just want to thank everyone who played a role (in the research) over these 40 years, who helped in one way or other. I just want to thank them. And of course, the public scientific opinion certainly played a very important role.” 7. Various STILLS of Ekimov 8. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexei Ekimov, Nobel prize winner in chemistry: “We were taught well (in the Soviet Union), and this was very important. Taught well not in the sense of being drilled, but in having an interest instilled in us. Back then, it was a career based on curiosity, not for making money or anything else. It was interesting and this led to success. I think this played a very important role, and this is somehow related to the Russian school of science. This was undoubtedly important.” 9. Various STILLS of Ekimov STORYLINE: Scientist Alexei Ekimov, 78, was caught on vacation in Florida when he heard he was an awardee of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry. “At first, of course, I thought my friends were playing a joke on me,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press outside his vacation home on Wednesday shortly after receiving the news. “I went on there (the Nobel Prize Committee website) and with some surprise really did find our photographs there, of myself and my colleagues, and I thought ok, it looks like it really is true,” he added. Ekimov was awarded together with Moungi Bawendi of MIT and Louis Brus of Columbia University for their work on quantum dots, which are tiny particles just a few nanometers in diameter that can release very bright colored light and whose applications in everyday life include electronics and medical imaging. The tiny particles “have unique properties and now spread their light from television screens and LED lamps,” according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which announced the award in Stockholm. Ekimov is the former chief scientist at Nanocrystals Technology, a company based in New York where he started working in 1999. The Swedish academy credited him with demonstrating in the early 1980s that the size of copper chloride nanoparticles affected the colors in glass. His first publication on the topic was in 1981 when he was a scientist in the Soviet Union. AP video shot by Daniel Kozin Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive:
