Nanoscientist Louis Brus, who shared the Nobel prize in chemistry with Alexei Ekimov and Moungi Bawendi in 2023 for his work on quantum dots, has passed away at the age of 82. Brus was a professor of chemistry at Columbia University in the US, having also worked in the navy and at Bell Laboratories.

Brus was born in Cleveland, US, in 1943, though he moved around the country throughout his childhood. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Rice University sponsored by the US Navy. Brus noted in his biography on the Nobel prize website that he liked science but ‘never thought that [he] could make a career out of it’, and had planned to serve in the military then become a businessman like his father.

However, Brus postponed his service to pursue a PhD in chemical physics at Columbia, inspired by some of his teachers at Rice. After graduating, he served for several years at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC, where he enjoyed the freedom to choose which projects he worked on.

Brus then spent over two decades at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. Here, he began looking at colloidal nanocrystals and discovered that such particles change colour depending on their size, a property he described with the Brus equation . Such particles are now known as quantum dots, which led to Brus sharing the Nobel prize. Quantum dots have found a variety of applications, such as boosting the efficiency of solar panels, producing a greater range of colours in television screens, and improving images of cells and tumours. Brus returned to Columbia in 1996 where he spent the rest of his career working on these small, yet significant, nanocrystals.

‘In my scientific and personal odyssey over the past seven decades, I have worked on an unusually wide range of problems,’ reflected Brus in his Nobel biography, adding that understanding what electrons are doing was a common theme. Brus was an advocate for basic science research for its power to improve lives, often in unforeseen ways.

In addition to the Nobel prize, Brus was awarded several other honours in his life, including the Kavli prize in nanoscience, the Welch Award in Chemistry and the National Medal of Science. He was also elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors late last year.

‘Beyond his scientific brilliance, [Brus] was beloved by all who knew him for his warmth, generosity, intellectual curiosity and unwavering support of young scientists,’ Columbia’s chemistry department said in a statement announcing Brus’ death.

Angel Martí, a professor of chemistry at Rice and a close friend of Brus, said that he was ‘an exceptional scientist [and] a remarkable colleague’. He adds that his legacy lives on ‘through his groundbreaking research, his profound impact on generations of mentees and his contributions to the field.’