Nano World Magazine

Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel Prize-winning chemist, dies at 76

Sir Harold Walter Kroto, FRS, known as Harry Kroto, was an English chemist who won the Nobel Prize for his role in discovering buckminsterfullerenes or also known as ‘buckyballs’. He shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley for their discovery. Sir Harry Kroto was born on 7 October 1939 and died recently aged 76 on April 30, 2016.
Harry Kroto was Honorary President of The NANOSMAT Society and attended numerous NANOSMAT conferences.
The first ever NANOSMAT conference (International Conference on Surfaces, Coatings and Nanostructured Materials) was held in 2005 at the University of Aveiro in Portugal and Professor Harry Kroto delivered the plenary lecture there. Subsequently, he was the plenary speaker at the second NANOSMAT in 2007 which was held in Alvor, Portugal. In 2009, the MPA Meeting was held in Manchester and Professor Harry Kroto was the plenary speaker.
The first ever NANOSMAT-USA (2012) and 2nd NANOSMAT-USA (2014) were held in Tampa (Florida, USA) and Houston (Texas, USA), respectively. On both these occasions Nobel Laureate Professor H. W. Kroto from Florida State University (USA) delivered the plenary lectures.
The attendees of the conferences found Harry Kroto to be pleasant, friendly and always willing to offer his invaluable advice to students.
Not only was he a great scientist but Sir Harry Koto had a passionate interest in art and design. He was remarkable with children and was very much passionate about the importance of communicating science, especially to children.