Argonne’s Mercouri Kanatzidis receives William H. Nichols Medal
The annual award from the American Chemical Society honors original research in chemistry
Mercouri Kanatzidis, a professor at Northwestern University with a joint appointment as a materials scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, has been honored with the 2026 William H. Nichols Medal from the American Chemical Society (ACS).
The annual award from the ACS, a nonprofit professional organization, recognizes Kanatzidis’ work on the development of halide perovskites as a new class of materials for next-generation photovoltaics. The Nichols Medal is given for a “significant and original contribution in any field of chemistry” over the past five years, according to the ACS, which established the award in 1902. Halide perovskites are a class of semiconductors being explored for use in solar cells.
“This award is a wonderful validation of our team’s efforts and a reminder of the power of curiosity-driven research.” — Mercouri Kanatzidis, Argonne materials scientist
“I am truly honored to be recognized with the Nichols Medal. When I began exploring halide perovskites, few could have anticipated how rapidly they would reshape the landscape of photovoltaics and optoelectronics. This award is a wonderful validation of our team’s efforts and a reminder of the power of curiosity-driven research,” Kanatzidis said.
The medal follows two other recent significant honors for Kanatzidis. Last year, he received the 2025 ACS Award in the Chemistry of Materials, which recognized his research on a sulfur-containing material, chalcogenide, which could potentially be used in superconductors, X-ray detectors and gamma-ray detectors. The 2025 award also recognized his exploration of halide perovskite materials that could boost the efficiency of solar cells. In 2023, the International Mineralogical Society named a new chalcogenide mineral, kanatzidisite, after him.
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