A newly discovered mineral has been named after Northwestern chemistry Prof. Mercouri Kanatzidis, a materials scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.
The mineral was discovered in Hungary and subsequently announced by the International Mineralogical Association.
“To have a mineral named after me? Well, that’s a real ‘rock star’ moment in my career,” Kanatzidis said in a Monday news release from Argonne Laboratory. “It’s a very unusual honor, and you hope the name will stick around a long time.”
The Kanatzidisite is currently being housed at the Museo di Storia Naturale at the University of Florence in Italy.
The IMA chose the name because Kanatzidisite is classified as a chalcogenide, a type of chemical compound that has long been a focus of Kanatzidis’ work at both Argonne and NU.
Chalcogenides are materials containing sulfur that are used in the production of copper metal.
In his work, Kanatzidis investigated the possibility of chalcogenides as potential superconductors and as X-ray and gamma-ray detectors, according to the release. Chalcogenides can also be used in solar cells.
Kanatzidis said in the release he believes the material could make a great impact in the fields of electricity and energy. He said researchers plan to create more of the Kanatzidisite to study.
“This new material could be a number of things — it might be a good thermoelectric material, which can absorb heat to create electricity,” Kanatzidis said. “It could be a topological quantum material, which could be used for energy conversion, or even a superconductor.”
Correction: A previous headline for this article misidentified who discovered Kanatzidisite. The Daily regrets the error.
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