K. Eric Drexler

Often described as “the founding father of nanotechnology”, Eric Drexler introduced the concept in his seminal 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which established fundamental principles of molecular engineering and outlined development paths to advanced nanotechnologies. In his 1986 book, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, he introduced a broad audience to a fundamental technology objective: using machines that work at the molecular scale to structure matter from the bottom up. Drexler’s research in this field has been the basis for numerous journal articles and a comprehensive, physics-based analysis in Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation. In his publications and lectures, Dr. Drexler describes the implementation and applications of advanced nanotechnologies and shows how they can be used solve, not merely delay, large-scale problems such as global warming.

Dr. Drexler served as Chief Technical Consultant to the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, a project of the Battelle Memorial Institute with support from the Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, and Brookhaven US National Laboratories, and as Chief Technical Advisor to Nanorex, a company developing open-source design software for structural DNA nanotechnologies. He has worked in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund to explore nanotechnology-based solutions to global problems such as energy and climate change.

He is currently an Academic Visitor in residence at Oxford University where he recently completed Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization, published by PublicAffairs Books, May 2013.

Drexler was awarded a PhD in Molecular Nanotechnology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (the first degree of its kind). Eric resides in Oxford, United Kingdom, with his wife, Rosa Wang

Alex zettl

Alex Zettl is an American professor of experimental condensed-matter physics. His research involving the properties of novel materials has produced significant advances in the field.

Zettl received a B.A. degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1978. He received a Ph.D. degree from University of California, Los Angeles in 1983. He joined the faculty of the UCB Physics Department in 1983. He is currently a Professor of Physics and a Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Significant Research Results

He is part of a Nanotechnology group at UCB, the Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems. He holds patents on the nanoradio, the nano mass sensor and other developments from this center's research.

The research of Zettl, Kenneth Jensen, Jeff Weldon and Henry Garcia culminated in a single nanotube mounted on the tip of a metal electrode. When an electric current is passed between that nanotube and another, shorter, nanotube mounted nearby, an FM radio-frequency signal can be sensed by the nanotube, and the signal is converted into an audible signal without any other circuitry required. This remarkable phenomenon was first described in the November 2007 issue of Nano Letters, a monthly publication of the American Chemical Society. In that same issue, independent University of California, Irvine, researchers Peter Burke and Chris Rutherglen announced a similar result - sensing and demodulating an AM radio-frequency signal, although their apparatus included conventional circuitry for antenna and amplification