Sir J. Fraser Stoddart

Sir J. Fraser Stoddart shared the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Ben Feringa for the design and synthesis of molecular machines. Stoddart's work was especially important for rotaxanes, where a molecular ring is threaded onto an axle-like molecule.

Rotaxanes are mechanically interlocked molecules with a ring trapped on a molecular axle, while catenanes are linked molecular rings. Stoddart used molecular recognition and self-assembly to make these structures controllable rather than just chemical curiosities.

His group showed that interlocked molecules could act like switches and moving components at molecular scale. That made them relevant to nanoelectronics, molecular memory concepts, and later research into artificial molecular devices.

He was a British-American chemist, born in Scotland and long associated with institutions such as Northwestern University. Late in his career he also joined the University of Hong Kong as a chemistry chair professor.