TRIBUTES have been paid to world-leading chemist and Nobel Prize-winner Sir Harry Kroto.

The University of Sussex's emeritus professor, who gained world-acclaim for his work in discovering Buckminsterfullerene, died on Saturday, aged 76.

The university's vice-chancellor Professor Michael Farthing said he and his colleagues were mourning "the passing of a genius".

Sir Harry, whose Jewish family escaped from Germany as refugees in the 1930s, was working at the University of Sussex when he and his team made a breakthrough that would change the fundamental understanding of chemistry.

The research into the identification of carbon chains in the interstellar medium lead to the discovery of the C60 molecule known more commonly as Buckminsterfullerene or Bucky Balls.

Sir Harry won the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, jointly with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley, for their discovery in 1985 of fullerenes – new forms of carbon where atoms are arranged in the form of a ball.

Before their breakthrough only two pure forms of carbon were known to exist - graphite and diamond.

Their research led to an entirely new branch of chemistry with potential applications ranging from rocket fuel to anti-Aids drugs.

Sir Harry played a key role in helping to build the University of Sussex into a centre of research where he pursued his interest in giant stars and interstellar gas clouds with more startling discoveries.

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1990 and was given numerous honours in his later years including the Longstaff Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1993, a knightood in 1996, the Michael Faraday prize in 2001 and the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 2004.

Professor Michael Farthing, vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex, said: “Harry Kroto’s intelligence was stratospheric – and his contribution to chemistry will live on forever.

"The many students and academics he worked with at Sussex and other universities around the globe are so fortunate that he took the decision to focus much of his life within education and research – giving others the opportunity to benefit from the power of his mindset.

"Although myself and my colleagues at the University of Sussex mourn the passing of a genius, we feel immensely proud to be part of the legacy that he leaves behind.”

He is survived by his wife Margaret, who he married in 1963, and his two sons.