Foreign Born, Nano Built

The Global Faces Behind American Science

When the 2025 Nobel Prize winners were announced, a striking pattern emerged—half of the U.S. winners in science categories were immigrants. Among them was Omar M. Yaghi, a Jordanian-born chemist now at UC Berkeley, who received the chemistry prize for creating revolutionary metal-organic frameworks with potential applications from harvesting water from desert air to capturing carbon dioxide ¹ . His journey from a poor refugee family to Nobel laureate began at age 15 when he arrived alone in the United States with limited English but boundless scientific curiosity ¹ .

Yaghi's story is far from unique in American science. This year, two of the three U.S. Nobel physics winners—Michel H. Devoret from France and John Clarke from the United Kingdom—also immigrated to the United States ¹ . They join a long tradition of foreign-born researchers who have fundamentally shaped America's scientific landscape, particularly in cutting-edge fields like nanoscience and nanotechnology. These fields, which involve manipulating matter at the atomic and molecular level (1-100 nanometers), have become breeding grounds for innovation thanks to the diverse perspectives and expertise these scientists bring ⁸ .

In this article, we'll explore how immigrant scientists have shaped nanoscience, examine a key experiment that demonstrates nanotechnology's power, and consider what's at stake if America closes its doors to the world's brightest minds.

What Exactly is Nanoscience?

To appreciate the impact of immigrant scientists, we must first understand the field they've helped build. Nanoscience is the study of structures and molecules on the scale of nanometers (1-100 nm), while nanotechnology applies this knowledge to create practical devices and materials ⁸ . To visualize this scale, consider that a single human hair is approximately 60,000 nanometers thick, while a DNA double helix has a radius of just 1 nanometer ⁸ .

The concept of manipulating individual atoms dates back to physicist Richard Feynman's legendary 1959 lecture "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," where he hypothesized about writing the entire Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin ⁸ . The term "nanotechnology" itself was coined in 1974 by Japanese scientist Norio Taniguchi ⁸ .

A Brief History of Nano

The Immigrant Impact on American Nanoscience

The contributions of foreign-born scientists to American nanotechnology extend far beyond a handful of Nobel Prizes. Historically, immigrants have been awarded 36% of all Nobel Prizes won by Americans in chemistry, medicine, and physics since 1901 ¹ . This trend has accelerated in recent decades, with immigrants receiving 40% of these prestigious awards since 2000 ¹ .

Why Immigration and Innovation Intertwine

This simple statement reveals why immigrant scientists have become so crucial to American nanotechnology. The field requires substantial resources—sophisticated equipment, generous funding, and collaborative research communities—that are concentrated in a few leading nations .

Physics, which has the highest proportion of foreign-born Nobel laureates at 37%, demonstrates this pattern clearly . The expensive equipment needed for cutting-edge research—particle colliders, advanced lasers, specialized detectors—resides primarily in leading scientific nations, drawing top talent from around the world .

Notable Immigrant Contributions to Nanoscience

The impact of these scientists extends beyond their research. They establish laboratories, mentor future scientists, and create knowledge networks that span the globe. Yaghi, for instance, has "established an entire institute in order to really bring up the best and the brightest and provide opportunities across the entire world," according to Anne Baranger, interim dean of the UC Berkeley College of Chemistry ¹ .

Inside the Nanoscience Lab: A Key Experiment

To understand how nanotechnology works in practice, let's examine a fundamental tool that enables nanoscience: the atomic force microscope (AFM).

What is Atomic Force Microscopy?

AFM is a technique that allows scientists to visualize and manipulate materials at the atomic scale. It works by moving an extremely sharp tip (just a few atoms wide) across a surface and measuring the subtle forces between the tip and the atoms on that surface ⁷ . The sensitivity is remarkable—able to measure distances as small as 100 attometers (10⁻¹⁸ meters), which is two orders of magnitude smaller than the length of a carbon-hydrogen bond ⁷ .

Atomic Force Microscopy allows scientists to visualize and manipulate materials at the atomic scale

The Experiment: Probing Cellular Mechanics

In a landmark study, researcher Sbaizero and colleagues used AFM to investigate the mechanical properties of cells ⁷ . They wanted to understand how the cytoskeleton (the cell's structural framework) influences a cell's response to physical forces.

Methodology Step-by-Step

Results and Significance

The experiment revealed that cells treated with Cytochalasin D required less force to remove the nanosphere than untreated cells ⁷ . This demonstrated that the cytoskeleton plays a crucial role in maintaining cellular mechanical integrity.

This type of research has profound implications for understanding how cells interact with medical implants and nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems. By characterizing these nanoscale interactions, scientists can design better biomedical devices that integrate more effectively with living tissue.

The Nanoscientist's Toolkit

Nanotechnology research relies on specialized materials and reagents designed to function at the molecular scale. Here are some key tools that enable breakthroughs in this field:

Table 2: Essential research reagents in nanotechnology

Global Talent, American Innovation

The story of American nanoscience is inextricably linked to the contributions of immigrant scientists. From Nobel laureates to graduate students, foreign-born researchers have brought diverse perspectives that drive innovation in this cutting-edge field. As Omar Yaghi eloquently stated, "Smart people, talented people, skilled people, exist everywhere. That's why we really should focus on unleashing their potential through providing them with opportunity" ¹ .

The future of American leadership in nanotechnology depends on continuing to welcome and integrate the world's brightest minds. As we've seen through historic examples and current breakthroughs, the collaborative nature of science thrives when ideas and people can move freely across borders. In the nanometer-scale world where materials display surprising new properties, perhaps the most powerful combination is the meeting of different perspectives around a shared scientific challenge.

Nobel Prizes Highlight Immigrant Contributions

Table 3: U.S. Nobel Prize winners in 2025 science categories