Foresight Nanotech Institute Weekly News Digest: June 15, 2005
In this issue:
- Foresight Nanotech Conference – Save Money – Super Early Registration deadline – June 30th
- Foresight Nanotechnology Challenges – Related news and events
- Spotlight on Foresight Members – Corporate Member – Draper Fisher Jurvetson
- Foresight Partners
- Nanotech Events
Foresight Nanotech Institute News
Advancing Beneficial Nanotechnology:
Focusing on the Cutting Edge
13th Foresight Conference on Advanced Nanotechnology
October 22-27, 2005
San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel
http://www.foresight.org/conference2005/index.html
Customize your conference experience – Choose the days and sessions that provide the kind of nanotechnology information and contacts you seek. Foresight Nanotech Institute offers an "a la carte" conference so you can select the days that are most valuable to you. Or attend all six days and receive a sweeping introduction: from Vision, through current Applications and Policies, to the Research that is on the cutting edge of advanced nanotechnology.
Receive Super Saver Discount when you register by June 30, 2005!
Register online today at:
http://www.foresight.org/conference2005/registration.html#RegFees
Confirmed Speakers
- Todd Barker, Partner, Meridian Institute
- Aubrey de Grey, Biomedical Gerontologist, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Derek Boston, Partner, Guth Christopher LLP
- Tom Kalil, Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Science and Technology, UC Berkeley
- Peter Singer, Director, U. Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, Canada
- Hiroshi Yokoyama, Nanotechnology Research Institute, AIST, Japan
- Clark Gellings, VP Innovation, Electric Power Research Institute
- Ray Rothrock, Managing General Partner, Venrock Associates
- Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
- Charles Harris, Chairman and CEO, Harris & Harris Group, Inc.
- Michael Moe, Chairman and CEO, ThinkEquity Partners LLC
- Charles Lieber, Professer, Harvard University
- William Goddard, III, Professor, Caltech
- Jim Von Ehr, Founder, Chairman, CEO, Zyvex Corporation
- Michael Weiner, CEO, Biophan Technologies Inc.
- Fred Tepper, President, Argonide Corporation
- Michael Pak, President and CEO, Nanostellar, Inc.
- William Lee, President and CEO, eMembrane, Inc.
- Robert Berry, CEO, Dendritic NanoTechnologies, Inc.
- Eric Drexler, Founder and Advisor, Foresight Nanotech Institute
- Mark Lemley, Professor of Law, Stanford University
- Richard Smith, President, Nanotechnology Network
- Scott Mize, President, Foresight Nanotech Institute
- Christine Peterson, Founder and VP Public Policy, Foresight Nanotech Institute
Other Important Deadlines
Abstract Deadline – June 30, 2005
To submit an abstract, please follow this link:
https://www.foresight.org/forms/php/abstract.php?Event_ID=44
Prize Deadlines – July 15, 2005
Foresight has added a Government Prize this year.
http://www.foresight.org/prize/index.html#experimentaltheory
Sponsorship Opportunities
Give your firm prominence within the nanotechnology community by becoming a conference sponsor. Thanks to our current sponsors listed below:
To become a sponsor follow this link (PDF)
Lectures - Foresight Nanotech Institute
Nanotechnologies and Environment Policy Conference
Sponsored by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Clean Production Action, and the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production
June 16, 2005
Santa Clara, California
Christine Peterson will speak on a panel on Nanotech Environmental and Health Impacts. Other panelists include Jim Thomas, Program Manager, ETC Group and Margaret Quinn, Sc.D. CIH, School of Health and Environment, Department of Work Environment University of Massachusetts. For more information, or call 408.287.6707
National Youth Leadership Forum on Nanotechnology
Sponsored by the National Youth Leadership Forum
June 30, 2005
San Jose, California
Scott Mize will speak about The Foresight Nanotechnology Challenges and Christine Peterson will lead a two-hour workshop on nanotechnology at this prestigious high school forum, which brings outstanding youths together to envision and explore the future of technology.
http://www.nylf.org/tech/index.cfm
Foresight Nanotechnology Challenges
Foresight has articulated six critical challenges that humanity faces which can be addressed by nanotechnology. In the Weekly News Digest we identify news items, research breakthroughs, and events citing current research and applications providing the stepping-stones to solutions to these challenges.
1. Meeting global energy needs with clean solutions
Vow of lower solar costs attracts venture capital
News source: San Jose Mercury News, by Matt Marshall
Nanosolar of Palo Alto has raised $20 million from a group of investors led by the Menlo Park firm Mohr, Davidow Ventures. Miasolé of San Jose has raised $16 million in a round led by Menlo Park's Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
"Nanosolar and Miasolé have shed silicon as their semiconductor material—its crystal form is bulky and inflexible. Instead, they're using a copper alloy, copper-indium-gallium-diselenide, that can be deposited on more flexible material—transforming bulky solar panels into thin foils."
Mercury News article
http://www.nanosolar.com/
http://www.miasole.com/solution.asp
2. Providing abundant clean water globally
Seldon Laboratories wins contract for water filtration
News source: The Barre Montepelier Times Argus, by Kim Smith Dedam
Seldon Laboratories LLC, a nanotechnology research and design firm, has been awarded a $2.5 million research contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory based in Dayton, Ohio.
"This particular contract is for research on fused carbon nanotube technology," said Jonathan Wilson, marketing director at Seldon Laboratories.
A nanotube is a rolled-up sheet of carbon atoms that resembles a micro-sized roll of chicken wire, he said. The filter purifies water without chemicals, radiation or heat and is easily portable.
Senators Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and James Jeffords, I-Vt., secured the funding as part of this year's defense budget. The two lawmakers cited both an immediate need for the purification technology and a long-term benefit.
"One of the central problems in an extended military deployment is access to drinkable water," Leahy said in a press release. "Over the long-term, I can see this technology making drinkable, usable water available in struggling societies across the globe."
Times Argus article
Seldon Laboratories: http://www.seldontechnologies.com/
Senator Patrick Leahy website: http://leahy.senate.gov/
Senator Jim Jeffords website: http://jeffords.senate.gov/
3. Increasing the health and longevity of human life
Burnham Institute named a Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology by NIH;
Awarded $13 M to mount nano-attack on atherosclerotic plaque
News source: EurekAlert!
The Burnham Institute has been selected as a "Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology" ("PEN") by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute ("NHLBI") of the National Institutes of Health ("NIH"). A partnership of 25 scientists from The Burnham Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, and The Scripps Research Institute will use the $13 million award to design nanotechnologies to detect, monitor, treat, and eliminate "vulnerable" plaque, the probable cause of death in sudden cardiac arrest.
EurekAlert! article
Burnham Institute http://www.burnham.org/
4. Maximizing the productivity of agriculture
Nano Food Consortium Formed
News source: Just food.com
A group of Danish companies and scientific institutions are joining forces in a new research centre, Nano Food Consortium, aimed at research and development within the field of healthy and safe foods. The objective of the Nanofood Consortium, which was presented to the public at a conference at Aarhus University last week, is to promote partnerships between the food industry and public research and thus contribute to the development of healthier, safer and more nutritious food products.
http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=61009
5. Making powerful information technology available everywhere
HP Unveils New Interface For Nano-Electronic Circuits
News source: ExtremeNano, by Patrick Norton
How do you design nano-sized circuits and guarantee "nearly perfect yields" in the process? According to HP coding theory will be the key to building a "defect tolerant interface" for its cross-bar architecture in future processors.
Coding theory is most strongly associated with solving math, cryptography and telecom problems.
"We have invented a completely new way of designing an electronic interconnect for nano-scale circuits using coding theory," said Stan Williams, HP Senior Fellow and director, Quantum Science Research at HP Labs. "By using a cross-bar architecture and adding 50 percent more wires as an 'insurance policy,' we believe it will be possible to fabricate nano-electronic circuits with nearly perfect yields even though the probability of broken components will be high."
It's the nano-equivalent of a telephone operator that keeps patching your call through no matter how many cables break.
ExtremeNano source
Hewlett Packard press release
6. Enabling the development of space
LiftPort Group To Open Its First Carbon Nanotube Manufacturing Facility
News source: SpaceDaily
LiftPort Group, the space elevator company, announced plans for a carbon nanotube manufacturing plant, the company's first formal facility for production of the material on a commercial scale. Called LiftPort Nanotech, the new facility will also serve as the regional headquarters for the company, and represents the fruition of the company's three years of research and development efforts into carbon nanotubes, including partnering work with a variety of leading research institutions in the business and academic communities.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-05zq.html
Spotlight On Foresight Members
Foresight Nanotech Institute has updated its membership levels and added benefits. One of the new levels is the corporate membership. This week’s spotlight is on Foresight corporate member, Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
Corporate Member – Draper Fisher Jurvetson
"At Draper Fisher Jurvetson, we look for disruptive businesses run by entrepreneurs who want to change the world. To be successful as early stage VCs, we have to identify technology waves early and act upon those beliefs." said Steve Jurvetson, Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. "We believe that nanotech is the next great technology wave, the next phase of Moore’s Law, and the nexus of scientific innovation that revolutionizes most industries and indirectly affects the fabric of society. Historians will look back on the upcoming epoch with no less portent than the Industrial Revolution."
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is the premier early stage venture capital firm. Founded in 1985, DFJ has created a global network of affiliated venture funds with over $3 billion in capital commitments and offices in the major technology centers around the world. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the firm has proven expertise in identifying and helping extraordinary entrepreneurs who want to change the world.
For more information about Draper Fisher Jurvetson follow:
http://www.dfj.com
or read Steve Jurvetson’s blog at http://www.Jurvetson.blogspot.com
Foresight Nanotech Institute offers membership levels appropriate for individuals and companies. To find out more about membership follow this link:
http://www.foresight.org/members/index.html
Media Partners
If you attend or use any of our media partners’ events or services, please tell them you heard about it from Foresight Nanotech Institute.
July 28, 2005 - 2005 Nano Summit Research Conference
Sponsored by the Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas
Houston, Texas
One day conference on nanotechnology research applicable to life science, energy and electronics. Jim Heath of Caltech and UCLA will be speaking at the Nano Summit on nanosystems biology. After lunch, Dr Ferid Murad, Nobel Laureate with the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, will speak on cell signaling - Nitric Oxide in Drug Development: How Can Nanotechnology Be Involved?
Follow this link to conference: http://www.nanotechfoundation.org/WWO.html
Early registration date is July 1, 2005
Nanotechnology Now (nanotech-now.com) – is a leading source for news and information on nanotechnology. This news source announced last week that they posted the 10,000th news item since their inception in January 2003.
"Every day our staff sorts through literally hundreds of nano-news items, posting only the couple dozen that meet our criteria for real nano-news" said Nanotechnology Now Editor Rocky Rawstern. "The system we put in place in January 2003 allows us to categorize news into one or more of over 40 categories, giving our readers a distinct advantage when it comes to keeping track of their favorite topics. And our Power User Option allows readers to receive only the news in the categories they want, delivered to them on a schedule that meets their needs."
http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=09847
http://www.nanotech-now.com
July 26-27, 2005 - Nanotechnology for Defense
Sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement (IDGA)
Georgetown University Conference Center, Washington, D.C.
Learn about defense applications for nanotechnology such as combat ration packaging, solar panels, coatings, batteries, electronics, sensors, and artificial muscles. Interact with top scientists from military research laboratories, academia and the private sector. Learn how nanotechnology could drive Army transformation and will discover how public-private partnerships can accelerate nanotechnology development.
Foresight News Digest readers receive a 10% discount by registering with the special code - F237EM
Conference URL
Nanotech Events & News
Today is the deadline - Small Times Magazine Best of Small Tech Award nominations due. Winners will be announced in a special year-end issue of Small Times magazine. To submit a nomination, http://www.smalltimes.com/awards/
Or contact Small Times by email at info@smalltimes.com.
June 21, 2005 – Nanotechnology at Chevron
Santa Clara, California
Presented by Dr. Waqar Qureshi, General Manager, Molecular Diamond Technologies, Chevron Texaco Technology Ventures LLC
Event URL
June through October, 2005 – Hitachi High Technology Demonstrates New Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope
Throughout the US - Road Show
Presented by Hitachi High Technology
More information
July 6-7, 2005 – Nanomed Conference 2005
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Hosted by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, with partners Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (CELS) and the Centre of Excellence for Nanotechnology, Micro and Photonic Systems (CENAMPS)
http://www.nanomed.org.uk/
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