Curl, Robert F(loyd), Jr (1933– )

US chemist who with English chemist Harold W Kroto and US chemist Richard E Smalley shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996 for their discovery of fullerenes.

In 1985, Curl, Richard E Smalley, his associate at Rice University, Texas, USA, and English scientist Harold W Kroto, conducted a series of experiments which led to the discovery of the first fullerene, a previously unknown allotrope of carbon. Until then, diamond and graphite were thought to be the only stable forms of carbon.

This discovery has lead to the establishment of a new branch of organic chemistry and has opened the way for the development of a new generation of carbon-based materials. Fullerenes have potential applications as lubricants, semiconductors, superconductors, and as the starting point for drug synthesis.

Curl was born in Alice, Texas. He received his PhD in chemistry at the University of California at Berkley in 1957 and joined the faculty at Rice University in 1958. He has been a professor there since 1967.