Feringa, Bernard Lucas (1951-…), a Dutch chemist, won a share of the 2016 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research in the field of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is the creation and study of structures that are slightly larger than atoms and molecules. Feringa shared the prize with the French chemist Jean-Pierre Sauvage and the British-American chemist Sir J. Fraser Stoddart.
Feringa created one of the first nanoscale (molecule-sized) single-direction “motors.” This molecular motor consists of two flat sections that resemble rotor blades. The sections are attached by a covalent bond, allowing them to spin along an axis. The sections overlap slightly. When ultraviolet light is shone on the motor, one of the “blades” spins 180 degrees. As it does, it snaps past the other blade, preventing backward rotation. In 2011, Feringa and his research team created a molecular device with four attached nanoscale motors. Exposed to a beam of electrons, the device rolled across a surface like a tiny car.
Feringa was born on May 18, 1951, in Barger-Compascuum (in the municipality of Emmen), northwest of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. In 1969, he enrolled at the University of Groningen, studying chemistry. He received a B.S. degree in 1974 and a Ph.D. degree in 1978. He then worked as a research chemist at the energy company Royal Dutch Shell (now Shell) in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. He returned to the University of Groningen in 1984 as a lecturer and was appointed a professor there in 1988. In 2008, he was knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
