Richard Smalley

Who was Richard Smalley?

Richard Errett Smalley (June 6, 1943 – October 28, 2005) was an American chemist who was the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Astronomy at Rice University. In 1996, along with Robert Curl, also a professor of chemistry at Rice, and Harold Kroto, a professor at the University of Sussex, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of a new form of carbon, buckminsterfullerene, also known as buckyballs. Smalley, the youngest of 4 siblings, was born in Akron, Ohio on, to Frank Dudley Smalley, Jr., and Esther Virginia Rhoads. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. Richard Smalley credits his father, mother and aunt as formative influences in industry, science and chemistry. His father, Frank Dudley Smalley, Jr. worked with mechanical and electrical equipment and eventually became CEO of a trade journal for farm implements called Implement and Tractor.

His mother, Esther Rhoads Smalley, completed her B.A. Degree while Richard was a teenager.

Historical significance

He was an advocate of nanotechnology and its applications. She was particularly inspired by mathematician Norman N. Royall Jr.