Birth of a nanoscience building block.

The first Kavli Prize in Nanoscience has recognized two giants of the field, Louis Brus and Sumio Ijima, who have helped to lay the foundation of the field of nanoscience through their efforts to develop two of the most fundamental nanoscience building blocks: colloidal quantum dots and the carbon nanotube. In this Focus, I provide a brief history on the birth of the field of semiconductor nanoparticles, or quantum dots, and outline the contributions that Louis Brus has made in this area, which have served to advance the field of nanoscience in vast and far-reaching ways.