Nanoscience expert receives 2016 Dickson Prize in Science

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EVANSTON - Chad A. Mirkin, the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University, has been awarded the 2016 Dickson Prize in Science.

EVANSTON - Chad A. Mirkin, the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University, has been awarded the 2016 Dickson Prize in Science.

The prize is awarded annually by Carnegie Mellon University to an individual in the U.S. who has made outstanding contributions to science. Mirkin will accept the award and deliver the Dickson Prize Lecture, “Nanotechnology: Small Things Matter,” Feb. 2 at Carnegie Mellon. 

Mirkin is world-renowned for his nanoscience expertise and for the discovery and development of spherical nucleic acids. SNAs are structures made of spherical nanoparticles densely covered with DNA or RNA — the genetic blueprints of living organisms. DNA or RNA strands dangle from a common center, and the resulting 3-D structure gives SNAs chemical and physical properties that are radically different from linear nucleic acids, the primary structure found in nature.

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