Researcher honored for experimental work in nanotechnology. — AFOSR via Eurekalert
This is a re-announcement of Custance, Sugimoto, and Abe’ Feynman Prize from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. (I have a personal fondness for AFOSR since they funded some of my optical computing research back in the 80’s.)
The Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology recognize researchers whose recent work has most advanced the field toward the achievement of Feynman’s vision for nanotechnology: molecular manufacturing — the construction of atomically-precise products through the use of molecular machine systems.
For the past two years, the Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development (AOARD), an international detachment of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, has been supporting Custance’s research to develop catalysts that use an atomic-scale-precision technique to place active gold atoms at an exact location on or near the surface of a model system. For the purpose of this research, Custance is studying the system of gold on cerium dioxide, or ceria.
“Gold has become an exciting element to study for its catalytic properties,” explains Dr. Thomas Erstfeld, AOARD program manager. “It was once thought of as relatively inert, but in the past couple of years, it has been discovered that nano-sized gold particles are excellent catalysts.”
Custance will share the award with Professors Yoshiaki Sugimoto and Masayuki Abe of Osaka University in recognition of their pioneering experimental demonstrations of mechanosynthesis for vertical and lateral manipulation of single atoms on semiconductor surfaces.
