Robert Floyd Curl Jr. was an American chemist who was Pitzer–Schlumberger Professor of Natural Sciences and professor of chemistry at Rice University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for the discovery of the nanomaterial buckminsterfullerene, and hence the fullerene class of materials, along with Richard Smalley and Harold Kroto of the University of Sussex. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1996, announced October 9, 1996. Robert F. Curl Jr., Sir Harold Kroto, and Richard E. Smalley, “for their discovery of fullerenes”. Robert F. Curl Jr.: born 1933, Alice, TX, USA. Sir Harold Kroto: born 1939, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire , United Kingdom. Richard E. Smalley: born 1943, Akron, OH, USA. Wiki link Wiki link Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).