The December 21, 2001, issue of Science highlights the successful linking of molecules into circuits and into computer chip architectures as the Breakthrough of the Year. 

Notable research leading to this breakthrough was done at Yale. 

In 1997, Chong-Wu Zhou, then a graduate advisee of Prof. Mark Reed, participated in a research group that created molecular diodes, one-way current valves that are among the most basic and essential elements for the chip designer (Mr. Zhou received his Ph.D. at Yale in 1999). 

In 1999, Prof. Mark Reed was co-leader of a team that succeeded in making molecular-scale devices that could act as a switch and, in 2000, demonstrated molecular memory. In 2001, his team demonstrated a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) circuit by linking molecules into a useable circuit. For specifics, visit http://www.eng.yale.edu/reedlab/

Prof. Reed is the inventor of modern molecular electronics and, in 1991, won a DARPA grant that led to research results that enabled research leading to the recent breakthroughs. He was awarded the DARPA ULTRA Most Significant Technical Achievement Award 1997 for this work.