The prestigious Nobel Chemistry prize for 2023 was awarded to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Aleksey Ekimov, the three scientists that discovered quantum dots. The Nobel prize is worth 11 million Swedish crowns (around $1 million), and will be split between the 3 winners.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, that awards the prize, stated that "Researchers believe that in the future they (QDs) could contribute to flexible electronics, tiny sensors, thinner solar cells and encrypted quantum communication".
Aleksey Ekimov discovered the color conversion properties of QDs in the early 1982, after discovering that the color of glass changes with the size of copper chloride molecules contained in it, and traced it to sub-atomic forces. Louis Brus extended Ekimov's work a few days latter, working with particles in solutions. Later in the early 1990s, Bawendi worked on improving the production and quality of quantum dots.