Two members of the scientific advisory council of the Skolkovo Foundation have received UNESCO medals for their contributions to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology.
Mikhail Dubina and Gennady Krasnikov received their awards at UNESCO headquarters in Paris earlier this month.
The UNESCO medals are awarded every year to leading scientists, public figures and organisations that have contributed to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology in key areas that benefit mankind.
“This medal is designed to highlight the tremendous benefits of progress in nanoscience and nanotechnologies for our societies, for our economies, for all of us,” UNESCO’s director general, Irina Bokova, was cited on UNESCO’s website as saying.
“This is a new branch of science, pushing ever further back the frontiers of knowledge – and UNESCO is committed to nurturing its full potential,” she said.
Mikhail Dubina, centre.
Dubina, the director of the nanotechnology centre of St. Petersburg Academic University, was given the medal for “his work in the research and development of new medical technologies based on the use of nanostructures in the earlier on-line diagnostics as well as the creation of new nano biotechnological devices that could influence the bioprocesses in the human body,” the UNESCO statement said.
Krasnikov, the director of the Scientific Research Institute of Molecular Electronics and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, received the award for his efforts to broaden the use of nanotechnologies in manufacturing industries and for his work in the field of semiconductor physics and semiconductor devices.
Gennady Krasnikov. Photo: Sk.ru
Medals for contribution to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology were also awarded this year to fellow Russians Professor Igor Ashurbeili and Natalya Mikhailova, as well as to Professor Isamu Akasaki from Japan, Professor Lei Jiang from China, Professor Philippe Pernod from France and Professor Nicholas Kotov from the U.S.
The co-chair of Skolkovo’s scientific advisory council, the Nobel laureate Zhores Alferov, is a previous recipient of the medal, which was established in 2010.