Prof. Uri Banin

Contact Information :
the Institute of Chemistry and
the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91904,
Israel

Tel: (+972-2-) 65 84515
Fax: (+972-2-) 65 84148
Mail: banin@chem.ch.huji.ac.il

Brief Biography:

Uri Banin received his B.Sc. degree in Physics and Chemistry from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) in 1989, graduating with honors. He completed his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at HU in 1994 working on femtochemistry (with distinction, advisor Prof. S. Ruhman). He then moved to the University of California at Berkeley to work for three years with Professor Paul Alivisatos as a postdoctoral fellow, studying the chemistry and physics of semiconductor nanocrystals. Dr. Banin joined the faculty of the Institute of Chemistry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1997, became an Associate Professor in 2001 and full professor in 2005. Banin is the founding director of the Harvey M. Kreuger center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at HU (founded in 2001). He presently directs the five year nanoscience initiative at the Hebrew University, in the frame of the Israel National Nanotechnology Initiative. Banin also serves on the University’s Executive Committee. He served as a member of the board of Yissum (technology transfer company of HU), served on the scientific advisory board of Nanosys, and served on the editorial board of the journal Nanotechnology. Banin was a member of the Maidan Committee on nanotechnology in Israel (2002). His distinctions include the Rothschild postdoctoral fellowship (1994-1995), and a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship (1994-1996). Banin was awarded the Alon fellowship for young faculty from the Israeli board of higher education (1997-2000), received the Yoram Ben-Porat prize from The Hebrew University (2000), was awarded the Israel Chemical Society prize for a young scientist (2001), and is a recipient of the Michael Bruno Memorial Award (2007-2010). Banin’s research focuses on nanoscience and nanotechnology of nanocrystals. He authored over 100 scientific publications in this field that have been extensively cited (over 4500 citations), and impacted various areas of science and technology of nanocrystals. More information is available at the Banin group site.

 Some highlights of Banin’s research on nanocrystals include the demonstration of the artificial atom character in quantum dots (cooperation with Prof. Oded Millo, Nature 1999), the development of nanocrystals with bright emission in the near-infrared (Journal of the American Chemical Society 2000) and their incorporation in polymer-nanocrystal light emitting diodes (cooperation with Prof. Nir Tessler, Science 2002), the synthesis of III-V semiconductor colloidal quantum rods (Nature Materials 2003), and the discovery of unique interaction of nanocrystals with the surrounding matrix modes (cooperation with Profs. Jortner and Rabani, Physical Review Letters 2008). In 2004 Banin and his co-workers reported on the selective growth of gold tips onto semiconductor nanocrystals (Science 2004, Nature Materials 2005) and in recent years he has focused his work to hybrid nanoparticles combining disparate materials. Such nanoparticles manifest unique properties and exhibit potential for use in harvesting solar energy, optics, electro-optics and biological labeling.