Nobel Prize in Chemistry failed his 1st exam – 10/04/2023 – Science

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Moungi Bawendi is one of the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for helping to develop “quantum dots”, but during his university days he was awarded the grade lowest in his class.

Bawendi failed his first chemistry exam in college and recalled that this experience almost destroyed him.

The 62-year-old Tunisian-American told the press this Wednesday (4) that he always had ease in science during high school, but when he arrived at Harvard University in the late 1970s, he experienced a shock that he did not expect. .

“I was used to not having to study for exams,” he said, adding that he felt intimidated by both the size of his class and the stern presence of a supervisor.

“I looked at the first question and didn’t know how to solve it, for the second and [também] I couldn’t do it”, he recalled. In the end, he received a grade of 20 in an exam worth a hundred, the lowest in the class.

“I thought: ‘My God, this is the end of me, what am I doing here?'” he asked himself.

Although he loved chemistry, Bawendi realized that he hadn’t learned how to study for exams, which he was able to quickly correct.

“I discovered how to study, something I didn’t know how to do before,” he said, reporting that after that he started getting “practically a hundred on all the tests.”

He leaves a simple message for young people: “persevere” and don’t let unforeseen events “destroy you”.

“My first experience with an F, by far the lowest grade in my class, could have easily destroyed me,” he added.

Quantum dots are tiny nanotechnology components that emit lights from television sets and LED lamps and can also guide surgeons in removing tumor tissue.

Bawendi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for having “realized a synthesis method that makes quantum dots widely usable.”