The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences category has gone in this thirteenth edition to Michael Grätzel from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) member of LICROX’s External Advisory Board (EAB), and Paul Alivisatos from University of California, Berkeley (United States) for their fundamental contributions to the development of new nanomaterials already in use for the production of renewable energies and latest-generation electronics.

Their work has applications in solar energy and cutting-edge electronics. “Grätzel’s ground-breaking work includes the invention of a dye-sensitized solar cell named after him,” reads the committee’s citation, while “Alivisatos has made pioneering contributions in using semiconductor nanocrystals for energy and display applications.”