Thomas Allison's "Molecular Movies" Concept Takes Home Stony Brook's $200K Discovery Prize

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Thomas Allison’s “Molecular Movies” Concept Takes Home Stony Brook's $200K Discovery Prize




Thomas Allison, holding his plaque after being named the 2017 Discovery Prize winner, with James H. Simons, Chairman of the Simons Foundation and one of the competition judges; and Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD, President of Stony Brook University.



Stony Brook, NY, April 14, 2017 – Thomas Allison, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Physics, and a developer of a technology at Stony Brook that will record the movement of molecules that may lead to the development of better high-tech devices, is the winner of the 2017 Discovery Prize. He and three other Stony Brook professors faced off and presented their research to a panel of judges at the competition in the Charles B. Wang Center Theatre at Stony Brook University. As the winner, Dr. Allison receives a $200,000 award.
The winner was chosen by a distinguished panel of judges, including 2016 Nobel Laureate in Physics from Princeton,
F. Duncan Haldane

, Berkeley’s Director of the Nuclear Science Division, Professor
Barbara Jacak

, and, Chairman of theSimons Foundation and a member of the National Academy of Sciences,
James H. Simons, PhD
.
“I am thrilled to be selected to receive the Discovery Prize, and this going to be a huge lift to support the tools and human resources needed to carry out our experiments,” said Dr. Allison after learning that he was selected for the award. “We believe using lasers to create movies of molecules is something that carries incredible potential to vastly improve our understanding of molecules, electrons in molecules, and how to use molecules to ultimately develop all kinds of high-tech machinery.”
“Basic scientific research helps us to better understand our universe, asks about what we don’t know and explores the boundaries of our Knowledge. It leads to breakthroughs and innovation that literally change our world,” said Samuel L. Stanley ...

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