Excited by the possibilities of her recent research results, Karen, a chemical engineering professor, decided it was time to file for patents on her new surface chemistry technology and create a business with a faculty colleague and two graduate students.

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Nearly three decades later in 2007, while visiting as a professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Yazami and Robert Grubbs, also a chemistry professor at the Caltech and the recipient of the 2005 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, were rumored to have made a major breakthrough in carbon-fluoride technology that would revolutionize the field of energy storage.

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It's a very, very big number says Dan Nocera, chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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The Awards jury was chaired by Professor Ahmed Zewail, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and Linus Pauling Chair Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics, California Institute of Technology.

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Subjects affected are identified as engineering, information technology, health and nursing studies, law, business, maths and chemistry.

BBC: Lecture

Dr Djerassi credits the Pill with pushing him beyond the hard edges of chemistry to consider the softer (ie, social and ethical) dimensions of new technology.

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For Ben King, an associate professor of chemistry at the school, one of the challenges in making the connection between science and technology is the gulf in communication between people.

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