Fraser Stoddart

British-American chemist who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Ben Feringa and Jean-Pierre Sauvage in 2016 for the design and synthesis of molecular machines.

Stoddart was Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry and head of the Stoddart Mechanostereochemistry Group in the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University in the United States. He worked in the area of supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology. Stoddart developed highly efficient syntheses of mechanically-interlocked molecular architectures such as molecular Borromean rings, catenanes and rotaxanes utilising molecular recognition and molecular self-assembly processes. He demonstrated that these topologies can be employed as molecular switches. His group even applied these structures in the fabrication of nanoelectronic devices and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS).

Bedsides the Nobel Prize, his efforts have been recognized by numerous awards including the 2007 King Faisal International Prize in Science.

Stoddart was married to Norma Agnes Scholan from 1968 until her death in 2004 from cancer. He had two daughters. Fraser Stoddart died while on holiday in Australia on 31 December 2024 at the age of 82.