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J. Fraser Stoddart, director of the California NanoSystems Institute and a UCLA professor, was re

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Outside the door of his office in the Molecular Sciences building, J. Fraser Stoddart’s name plaque is now accompanied by a pink post-it in front of the name. On it is scribbled the word “Sir.”

Stoddart, who is also the director of the California NanoSystems Institute, was recently named knight bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain for his research and service to the field of chemistry and molecular nanotechnology. The professor, who is from Edinburgh, Scotland, is the first UCLA faculty member to be knighted.

The title on the post-it is not only an opportunity for his students and colleagues to poke fun at his newfound knighthood. It is also a reflection of the professor’s advancements in his field and what many close to Stoddart believe is proper recognition for his pivotal research.

“Dr. Fraser Stoddart is one of the most eminent scientists in the world today, a towering figure in chemistry and nanoscience both here in California and in his native Britain,” said Bob Pierce, the British consul general for the L.A. region, in a statement.

“I am delighted that he is now going to be knighted by Her Majesty the queen for his outstanding work.”

But because of cultural delineations and differences, Stoddart said he does not plan on using the title in the U.S.

“This is a British type of recognition, and I will be quite happy to use it in the context of the U.K., but I’m not going to use it in the U.S. I just don’t think it would be appropriate here,” Stoddart said.

What is ironic, he said, is his American students and colleagues seem more humorously and endearingly interested in using the term “sir.”

One of his students sketched images playing off the word “knight.” Under the word “(k)nightgown,” there was a sketch of a stick figure wearing the garment, and the word “ig(k)nite” was accompanied by a picture of a lighter.

And under the words “Sir Fraser, Knight Bachelor,” was a sketch of a round face with glasses that resembled Fraser’s face.

Ranked by Thomson Scientific as the third most-cited researcher in chemistry from 1996 to 2006, Stoddart has published more than 770 papers and reviews and has given more than 700 invited lectures around the globe, according to a UCLA press release.

He has also been a pioneer in the field of nanotechnology, a field which does research at the atomic level in hopes of developing smaller, more powerful, devices and systems.

He and his research groups have also studied interlocked molecules, which became a new subsection of organic chemistry. By discovering the mechanical bond, which is a chemical bond found in these molecules, he became one of few chemists in the past 25 years to create a new field.

William Dichtel, a researcher of the Stoddart Supramolecular Chemistry Group, said these molecules have the ability to be controlled using electric pulses that allow them to act as memory devices and storage.

“These devices can be scaled down smaller than those commercially available,” Dichtel said.

Stoddart’s research in nanotechnology also includes his designs and constructions of nanovalves, which are smaller than living cells and have the ability to cross cell membranes. These devices have been adapted to be used as drug-delivery systems for cancer cells.

Though his work combining and manipulating tiny particles may appear solely scientific, Stoddart maintains that it contains an element of art as well.

He said what initially attracted him to chemistry was its artistic aspects – the creative intuitions that enable chemists to not only be scientists, but artists as well.

“Chemistry is unique amongst the sciences insofar as the big component is that you are the artist, you are the designer, you are the creator,” Stoddart said.

“You’d have this opportunity to explore your imagination to limitless bounds to achieve an objective. And it could just be the objective of making something beautiful, something exotic, something that nature makes.”

The colorful molecular structures decorating his office, in the form of drawings and sculptures, illustrate Stoddart’s notion of the fluidity between science and art.

He insists that if he were to compare the type of structures he has discovered and researched to a painter, he would have not been focused on portraits or landscapes, but rather bizarre abstracts that allow him the “opportunity to be creative in that mode.”

When he received the call in mid-November from the British Consul that he would be knighted, Stoddart said it came as an unexpected surprise to him, as well to his two daughters, who are also chemists.

Knight bachelor is one of the highest civil honors in Great Britain, and for an individual to be chosen who does not currently live in the country is rare, Stoddart said.

He is now included in a prominent category of scientists such as Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin, and Alexander Todd, the discoverer of the building blocks of DNA.

He is also in the company of popular culture figures who have been knighted, such as Paul McCartney and Elton John, and dames, the female equivalent of knights, such as Julie Andrews and Elizabeth Taylor.

“You suddenly realize you’re in a category that you never thought you would join,” Stoddart said.

And while he said the achievement brings pleasure and honor to himself and his research, it is also tinged with a sadness that his wife, a chemist who had played a significant part in his professional career, was not there with him.

Three years ago, his wife Norma, died due to breast cancer.

“If I could bring all my (awards) in, lay them on the table and say to someone, ‘Take them away and put my wife in that chair,’ I would be happier,” he said.