A Nobel Prize-winning scientist who made a key contribution to the University of Sussex's reputation as a centre of excellence is leaving Britain.

Sir Harry Kroto, 64, who shared the prize in 1996 for discovering fullerenes, a form of carbon, is moving to Florida State University.

He said he loved Sussex University but feared raising funds for his work would become increasingly difficult when he reached retirement later this year.

Florida State has guaranteed money for his research.

His departure is the latest high-profile loss to British science in the continuing "brain drain" across the Atlantic.

Sir Harry said: "I was headhunted. This will free me of many of the burdens of trying to find support."

He said over the past decade the task of finding funds for his work had been "like sitting at the bottom of the escalator of Victoria station, cap in hand".

Sir Harry, whose parents fled Berlin in the Thirties, said he was weary of the constant struggle to raise cash.

His departure comes at a time when students are increasingly turning away from the sciences and university chemistry departments are closing.

Six of his younger colleagues at Sussex have also been headhunted by other universities.

Sir Harry, who has been attending a conference in Korea and is soon to lecture to an audience of 25,000 children in India, said: "There are massive areas of chemistry opening up and the papers that I am seeing are now coming from China, Korea and India."

Professor Alisdair Smith, University of Sussex vice-chancellor, said he was disappointed to see Sir Harry go.

He said: "The university is obviously proud of Sir Harry's long and extremely distinguished career here at Sussex. But we understand why he wants to do something new at this stage in his career. We would rather he didn't go but we wish him well in the future.

"It is difficult for British universities to compete with the conditions American universities can offer.

"It is remarkable how well British science has done over the last 20 or 30 years considering the funding gap."

Professor of chemistry Norman Billingham said: "The sad fact is no university in this country can afford to fund people beyond their retirement.

"We will all be sad to see him go."