The awards ceremony will be held on April 25 at the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial in Philadelphia, Pa. A commemorative symposium will be held on April 24.

The Benjamin Franklin Medals are presented through the auspices of the Institute's Committee on Science and the Arts, which continues a tradition, begun in 1824, of recognizing achievements in science and technology in the following disciplines: Life Science, Engineering, Earth Science, Chemistry, Physics, and Computer and Cognitive Science. The Institute also awards the Bower Awards for Business Leadership and Achievement in Science.

For more than 150 years, this Program has honored outstanding individuals who have transformed entire fields of knowledge through their scientific discoveries and technological innovations. Past Laureates have included Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, Enrico Fermi, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. More recent recipients include Eric Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, Robert B Laughlin, Horst Stormer, Daniel C.Tsui, William Phillips, Carl Wieman, Serge Haroche and Herbert Walther. Like these, many of the award recipients include Nobel Laureates, making this award one of the most prestigious awards in physics in the world.

Dr. Iijima is the fourth Japanese to receive the award, following Drs. Leo Esaki, Akito Arima and Akira Tonomura, who received the award in 1961, 1990 and 1999, respectively.

The discovery of carbon nanotubes has cultivated new fields from fundamental material science technology to practical applications,” said Dr. Sumio Iijima. “It is an honor to receive the Benjamin Franklin Medal, and I believe this recognition will help take the science community as well as the industrial world a step closer in achieving our goals.”

Dr. Iijima is currently taking a global leading role as a Representative Researcher in the International Cooperative Research Project “Nanotubulites” of Japan Science and Technology Corporation (ICORP/JST). He also serves as Director of the Research Center for Advanced Carbon Materials of National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).

Recently, the European Physical Society (EPS) has awarded the Agilent Technologies Europhysics Prize for 2001 to Dr. Iijima, Cees Dekker, Thomas Ebbesen and Paul L. McEuen for the discovery of multi and single walled carbon nanotubes and pioneering studies. The American Physical Society (APS) has also selected Dr. Iijima and Dr. Donald S. Bethune to receive this year’s James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials for the discovery and development of single-wall carbon nanotubes. Award ceremonies for both prizes will be held at the EPS and APS Meetings held in March this year.

Further encouraged by these achievements, we are striving to strengthen our basic research, which will become seeds for future technology, and contribute to the advancement of society.

*About Carbon Nanotube
Using a transmission electron microscope Dr. Sumio Iijima discovered from inside the carbon electrode after arc discharge, the carbon nanotube, a new carbon material, in 1991. The carbon nanotube has a tubular structure with a nanometer-scale diameter (1-dimensional structure), and is the 4th carbon form following graphite (2-dimensional structure), diamond (3-dimensional structure), and carbon 60 (C60: 0-dimensional structure).

Dr. Iijima clarified mechanisms of growth and bending of nanotubes, found metal incorporation into nanotubes, and grew single-wall carbon nanotubes. These studies created a global research boom in the field of carbon nanotechnology.

The carbon nanotube has not been limited to scientific research, but also, its industrial application research has been briskly undertaken since the carbon nanotube discovery, due to its unique structure and physical properties. Especially, the possibility as an efficient electron source attracts attention because of the thin needle shape. The technology is almost in practical use in the flat panel display industry and in the future, because of its crystal completeness and miniature structure, carbon nanotube technology is expected to be applied to fuel cells, catalysts, absorbents, sensors, STM probes, lightweight and high-strength raw material and medicine etc.