Dr. Yakobson is the Karl F. Hasselmann Chair in Engineering. Dr. Yakobson holds a joint appointment between the Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering and the Department of Chemistry. In 2008, Yakobson received a Nano 50 Award from the science magazine, Nanotech Briefs, for his innovation in nanotechnology, and in 2009, the Department of Energy R&D Award. He received his Ph.D. in 1982 from the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Yakobson is an editorial board member of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research and a member of the American Physical Society and the Electrochemical Society.

Karl F. Hasselmann was a pioneer in offshore oil and gas exploration and a philanthropist. Hasselmann was a close friends with Malcolm Lovett Sr., Chairman of the Rice Board of Trustees from 1967-1972.

RESEARCH AREAS
Dr. Yakobson's research interests are in theory and modeling of structure, kinetics, and properties of materials derived from macroscopic and fundamental molecular interactions. He has done ground-breaking work on the physical properties of nanotubes, in particular their electro-mechanics, and recently with graphene and graphane.