Aleksey Yekimov

Nanocrystals Technology Inc.

Aleksey Yekimov (Alexey Ekimov) is a Russian-born solid-state physicist and a co-recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of quantum dots. In 1981, working at the Vavilov State Optical Institute in Leningrad, Yekimov observed that copper chloride nanocrystals grown inside a glass matrix exhibited size-dependent shifts in their optical absorption: by varying the temperature and duration of the glass-melting process he could control the size of the embedded crystallites and thereby tune their color, providing the first clear experimental demonstration of quantum size effects in a colloidal-scale semiconductor. This discovery, published in Soviet physics journals, predated and paralleled the independent work of Louis Brus on colloidal nanocrystals and together established the field of quantum dots. Trained at Leningrad State University and the Ioffe Institute and recognized with the USSR State Prize for his work on solid-state optics, Yekimov later emigrated to the United States and became chief scientist at Nanocrystals Technology Inc., a New York company developing doped-glass nanophosphors and nanocrystal-based optical materials for industrial applications. His career bridges fundamental solid-state physics and applied materials R&D, and the doped-glass and nanocrystal technologies he pioneered remain relevant to manufacturers of optical filters, phosphors, and display materials that rely on precision glass-melting, spectroscopy, and electron-microscopy instrumentation.