Robert Floyd Curl Jr.(August 23, 1933 – July 3, 2022) was an American chemist who was Pitzer–Schlumberger Professor of Natural Sciences and professor of chemistry atRice University.He was awarded theNobel Prize in Chemistryin 1996 for the discovery of thenanomaterialbuckminsterfullerene, and hence thefullereneclass of materials, along withRichard Smalley(also of Rice University) andHarold Krotoof theUniversity of Sussex. Fields: Chemistry Education: Rice Institute University of California, Berkeley