Curl, Robert F.

Robert F. Curl's affiliation with Rice University begins with his bachelor's degree at Rice in 1954. He received his Ph.D. in 1957 at the University of California, Berkeley. After a year at Harvard University as a research fellow in microwave spectroscopy, Curl joined the Rice faculty as an assistant professor in chemistry. In 1967 he became a full professor, served as chair of the chemistry department from 1992-1996, and then as the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Natural Sciences. In 2002, Curl was named the first Pitzer Professor of Chemistry.

Curl has received many honors and awards including the Clayton Prize of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Alexander von Humboldt Senior US Scientist Award from the University of Bonn, Germany. Along with Richard Smalley (Rice University's Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry) and Sir Harold Kroto (University of Sussex, Brighton, England), Curl received the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery in 1985 of buckminsterfullernes, the third molecular form of carbon. In 1992 the trio received the American Physical Society International Prize for New Materials.

Curl is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Lamba Upsilon and Sigma Xi, and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America. He has been Visiting Research Officer at the National Research Council of Canada, visiting scientist at the Institute of Molecular Science, Okazaki, Japan, and the National Institute for Standards and Technology in Boulder, the University of Bonn, and the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.