Sumio Iijima

Sumio Iijima is a Japanese physicist born May 2, 1939, a University Professor at Meijo University since 1999 and a senior research fellow at NEC Corporation. He is credited with the 1991 discovery of carbon nanotubes, a paper that generated widespread interest in carbon nanostructures and helped launch the field of nanotechnology. He shared the 2008 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience with Louis E. Brus and received the 2002 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics for the discovery and elucidation of the atomic structure and helical character of multi-wall and single-wall carbon nanotubes.