Robert Curl

Robert Curl was an American chemist renowned for discovering fullerenes, a new form of carbon molecules shaped like hollow spheres, ellipsoids, or tubes. This discovery expanded understanding of carbon's versatility and opened new avenues in nanotechnology and materials science. Curl shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Rice University's Richard Smalley and Sir Harold Kroto for their work on fullerenes. His research contributed significantly to the development of advanced materials with potential applications in electronics, medicine, and energy storage.