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IMAGE: Michael Grätzel, winner of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences. view more
Credit: BBVA FOUNDATION
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences category has gone in this thirteenth edition to Paul Alivisatos (University of California, Berkeley, United States) and Michael Grätzel (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland) for their fundamental contributions to the development of new nanomaterials already in use for the production of renewable energies and in latest-generation electronics. Grätzel s groundbreaking work includes the invention of a dye-sensitized solar cell named after him, reads the committee s citation, while Alivisatos has made pioneering contributions in using semiconductor nanocrystals for energy and display applications.