Harry Kroto

Harry Kroto shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley. The prize recognized their discovery of fullerenes, including the carbon molecule C60 known as buckminsterfullerene.

C60 has a cage-like structure resembling geodesic domes associated with architect Buckminster Fuller. The molecule contains 60 carbon atoms arranged in a pattern often compared to a soccer ball.

Kroto was based at the University of Sussex, while the key C60 experiments were done with Curl and Smalley at Rice University in the United States. Their collaboration connected Kroto's interest in carbon chains in space with laser-vaporization experiments in the lab.

Fullerenes made him internationally famous, but Kroto also worked on molecular spectroscopy and carbon chemistry. He later became active in science education and public communication before his death in 2016.