Paul Storch Weiss

Developed tools to see, feel, and manipulate matter on the nanoscale, simultaneously measuring spectra, structure, and function of systems under high vacuum and in solution. Pioneered applying hierarchical strategies for controlling placement of single molecules on the Angstrom scale and arrays of them on the centimeter scale. Among the few experimentalists who demonstrated function of single molecules as switches and motors, determining and controlling their mechanisms of function and addressing ultimate limits of miniaturization. In work ranging from quantum chemistry to mechanical engineering-including experiment, theory, and simulation, has explored how the functions of single molecules are coupled by building from the bottom up. Demonstrated that atoms and molecules communicate on surfaces through substrate electrons over distances significantly greater than chemical bond lengths, with important consequences regarding electronic and optical properties. As founding editor of ACS Nano, and director of the California NanoSystems Institute, provides inspired leadership and support in the burgeoning, interdisciplinary, field of nanoscience.