Professor Sir J. Fraser Stoddart

Professor Sir J. Fraser Stoddart
Awarded (jointly) the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016

• research involved the development of a mechanically-interlocked molecule called a ‘rotaxane’, achieved by threading a molecular ring on to a dumbbell-shaped molecular axle and demonstrating that the ring was able to move along it. Among developments based on his work on rotaxanes are a molecular lift, a molecular muscle and a molecule-based computer chip.
• received the Nobel Prize for work done in the 1990s, when he was Haworth Chair of Chemistry and Head of the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham.
• received an honorary degree from the University of Birmingham in 2005.

Professor Sir J Fraser Stoddart began his research at the University of Sheffield in the 1980s before joining the University of Birmingham from 1990 until 1997. The Nobel prize references his research papers from 1991 onwards.

The legacy of Professor Sir Fraser's chemistry at Birmingham still continues today through the Biomolecular, Supramolecular and Nanoscale Chemistry Research Unit, one of the four research units within the University’s School of Chemistry.

The Nobel Prize was awarded jointly to Professor Sir J. Fraser Stoddart along with Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Bernard L. Feringa, for their work into the design and synthesis of molecular machines. Their work has ‘miniaturised machines and taken chemistry to a new dimension,’ according to Nobel judges at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Professor Sir Fraser returned to the University of Birmingham November 2016, shortly after he received his Nobel Prize, to deliver a lecture on his life's work:

During his visit, Sir Fraser was interviewed by the University's Scientific Journalistic society SATNAV. Their exclusive article is available on the School of Chemistry's website.