Keynotes |
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James R. Von Ehr
President and founder of Zyvex Labs, LLC
James R. Von Ehr is founder and president of Zyvex, the world's first successful molecular nanotech company. Products of Zyvex Technologies and Zyvex Instruments have appeared in the Forbes Top 5, with notable partnerships including Lockheed Martin, DARPA and NIST, while the developmental research of Zyvex Labs continues to works towards true atomic-level precision.
Von Ehr was awarded Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award in June 2003, which celebrates the accomplishments of the world's greatest entrepreneurs. He has furthered nanotech initiatives in numerous ways, including: co-founding the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, personally supporting the UT-Dallas Nanotech Institute, and testifying before the Senate for The 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act.
Before founding Zyvex in 1997, Jim founded Altsys Corporation, which developed Freehand and Fontographer, the first commercially available PostScript drawing program. After Altsys was sold to Macromedia in 1995; Jim held a seat on Macromedia's Board of Directors for four years. Jim has a M.S. in Mathematical Sciences (Computer Science) from the UT-Dallas, and a B.S. in Computer Science from Michigan State University. |
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Barney Pell
Co-Founder, Vice-Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Moon Express, Inc.
BARNEY PELL, PhD is CoFounder and CTO of Moon Express, Inc. a private company building autonomous robotic lunar landers to enable exploration and commercial development of space. Moon Express was selected last year by NASA for a $10M lunar data services contract; this year the X PRIZE Foundation announced Moon Express as a competitor for the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE.
Dr. Pell is a long-time NASA veteran best-known for software to support planning and science collaboration for the Mars Exploration Rovers mission; Clarissa, the first spoken dialog system in space; and the development of the Remote Agent, the first AI system to fly onboard and control a deep space probe. Remote Agent is widely considered one of the top achievements in the history of Artificial Intelligence and was awarded NASA's "software of the year" award in 1999.
Since then, Dr. Pell's successful investments, affiliations & exits have included: SpaceX, PowerSet (Microsoft), Robotex, FlipDog, AppJet (Google), Hot Potato (Facebook), Etacts (Salesforce.com), and LinkedIn. Presently, Pell is also Chief Architect for Bing Local Search, as well as Associate Founder and Trustee at Singularity University.
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Emcee |
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Sonia Arrison
Senior Fellow, Pacific Research Institute
Sonia Arrison is an author and policy analyst who has studied the impact of new technologies on society for more than a decade. A Senior Fellow at the California-based Pacific Research Institute (PRI) and a columnist for TechNewsWorld, she is author of two previous books as well as numerous PRI studies. A frequent media contributor and guest, Sonia has also given testimony and served as an expert witness for various government committees such as the Congressional Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce and the California Commission on Internet Political Practices. She is an instructor for California's Command College and serves on the Board of Trustees for Singularity University. Her forthcoming book, 100 Plus, considers the social, economic and cultural impacts of a significant increase in human lifespan and makes the case for strongly supporting the development of longevity science and technology. |
Speakers and Panelists |
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Andrew Bleloch
Head of Microscopy at Halcyon Molecular
Andrew Bleloch recently moved to the Bay Area to join Halcyon Molecular after more than 8 years running the UK's SuperSTEM Laboratory at Daresbury, in conjunction with a professorship at the University of Liverpool. Prior to that, Andrew spent a decade as a fellow of Emmanuel College, with a total of 17 years at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. His interdisciplinary work in electron microscopy has allowed him to publish professionally in a wide range of fields, including biology, chemistry, materials science and physics. This ascetically academic career has prepared him well for his new role as Head of Microscopy at Halcyon, where he is engaged in applying the latest techniques in electron microscopy to the most important problem he has ever had the privilege of tackling — cheap, fast, ubiquitous genome sequencing. |
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Ari Requicha
Gordon Marshall Chair in Engineering, USC
Aristides A. G. Requicha was born in Monte Estoril, Portugal. He received the Engenheiro Electrotécnico degree from the Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal, and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester. He was a college and high school Valedictorian. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and is a Fellow of the IEEE, the ACM and the AAAS. Requicha is listed in the ISI Web of Knowledge as a highly cited researcher for the decades 1980-1999. He received the USC Senior Research Award; the first-ever Pierre Bezier Award at the ACM Solid and Physical Modeling Symposium; the Pioneer in Robotics and Automation Award from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society; and the Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Nanotechnology Council (NTC). He is currently a Distinguished Lecturer of the NTC. Requicha is a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and the Gordon Marshall Chair at USC, was the founding director of the Laboratory for Molecular Robotics, and was the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology until recently. |
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Christian Schafmeister
Professor of Chemistry, Temple University
The development of a universal molecular scaffold that would allow the systematic design, construction, and investigation of macromolecules that display chemical functionality in three-dimensional space is a primary goal of my group. A scaffold like this will allow the design and synthesis of new catalysts, molecular sensors, and ultimately molecular machines. My group use synthetic chemistry to synthesize molecular building blocks that we will couple to each other through pairs of bonds to construct rigid macromolecules with diverse and programmable shapes. We have developed computer software that allows the computer aided design of these molecules to carry out specific functions. |
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Christine Peterson
President/Co-Founder, Foresight Nanotech Institute
For over 25 years, Christine has written and lectured on nanotech and other emerging technologies to a wide variety of audiences, from the technical community, and policy makers, to the general public. She personally focuses on making this complex field understandable, and on clarifying the difference between near-term commercial advances and the "Next Industrial Revolution" arriving in the next few decades.
She is coauthor of Unbounding the Future: the Nanotechnology Revolution, which sketches nanotechnology's potential environmental and medical benefits as well as possible abuses. Her work is motivated by a desire to help humanity avoid harming its people or environment, and instead benefit from expected dramatic advances in technology.
She serves on the Advisory Board of the International Council on Nanotechnology and the Editorial Advisory Board of NASA's Nanotech Briefs. Wearing her for-profit hat, she serves on the Advisory Board of Blue Oxen Associates. Christine has a Chemistry degree from MIT. |
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Lerwen Liu
Business Development Manager, Zyvex Asia
Director of NanoGlobe and NanoStart Asia
Dr. Lerwen Liu is a nanotechnology expert specializing in strategic services, both in business development and project management for Zyvex Asia, and as a strategic advisor of Nanostart Asia. Since 1999 Dr. Lui has been actively building nanotechnology networks with government agencies, R&D institutions and industries across the world. She co-founded the Asia Nano Forum and founded the SingNano network, with the support of A*STAR, EDB and SPRING in Singapore. She is an invited evaluation panel member for the Proof-of Concept (POC) grant scheme of the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore, on the advisory board of Nanotechnology Opportunity Report (NOR).
Dr Liu has written over 150 reports providing insights on nanotechnology policy, R&D and business trends in the Asia Pacific region. She published her first book titled "Emerging Nanotechnology Power-Nanotechnology R&D and Business Trends in the Asia Pacific Rim" May 2009.
Dr Liu has a PhD in physics specializing in many-body effects and transports in semiconductor nanostructures, and has conducted research work in Australia, Japan, USA and Italy. She lives in Singapore. |
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Luke Nosek
Managing Partner at the Founders Fund
Luke Nosek is a managing partner with the Founder's Fund, a $275 million venture capital fund. He sits on the boards of SpaceX and Pathway Genomics, and president of the board of Halcyon Molecular. Nosek was Vice President of Marketing at PayPal, where he oversaw the company's marketing efforts at launch, growing the user base to 1 million customers in the first six months. Prior to PayPal, Luke was an evangelist at Netscape, and founded two other consumer Internet companies, including the web's first advertising network. Luke received a BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. |
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Margaret Johns
VP of Bluewater Consulting
Margaret Johns is Vice President of Bluewater Consulting, a boutique firm providing innovative solutions to the complex challenges technology-based organizations of all sizes: whether those companies are being incubated as startups within Fortune 500 companies, R&D laboratories, universities, or as independent enterprises. Bluewater Consulting's value proposition for these entities focuses on maximizing revenue, brand equity, and operational efficiencies while building and capitalizing on a strong intellectual property portfolio.
As leader of Bluewater Consulting's technology practice, Ms. Johns spends the bulk of her time on client engagement providing strategic direction, assessing market opportunity, developing integrated marketing communications plans, managing major product launches, and building best-in-class distribution channels in the nanotech, biotech, and cleantech arenas. She has received national recognition for her development of winning marketing initiatives.
Margaret's previous experience includes senior management roles within MTS and then Agilent, where she evaluated businesses for acquisitions, and later and worked on her own division's divestiture to Agilent. She has also worked with: Accenture, AMD, Analog Devices, Applied Materials, AstraZeneca, Freescale Semiconductor, H-P, Intel, Novellus, Pfizer, Samsung, Seagate, Sharp, Texas Instruments and United Microelectronics Corporation.
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Matt Francis
Professor of Chemistry, UC-Berkeley
Originally from Ohio, Matt Francis received his PhD from Harvard University, where he worked on the development of combinatorial strategies for the discovery and optimization of new transition metal catalysts in the lab of Dr. Eric Jacobsen. He then moved to UC Berkeley, where he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science. Under the guidance of Dr. Jean Fréchet, he developed DNA-based methods for the assembly of polymeric materials and the application of dendrimers for drug delivery.
Matt has since built his his independent career with a research program at UC Berkeley developing new organic reactions for protein modification. These new chemical tools have been used to modify biomolecular assemblies to prepare new materials for diagnostic imaging, wastewater treatment, and solar cell development.
Matt has received the Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award, an NSF Career Award, and a GlaxoSmithKline Young Investigator Award. He has also received the Departmental Teaching Award on two occasions, the Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the 2009 University Distinguished Teaching Award. |
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C. Michael Garner
Garner Nanotechnology Solutions, Co-Chair of the ITRS Emerging Research Materials Work Group
Michael Garner received his PhD in Materials Science & Engineering from Stanford University in 1978. He joined Sandia National Labs as a Process Engineer & Product Engineer. In 1983, he joined Intel's Technology and Manufacturing Group, where he was a Manager in Technology CAD responsible for modeling processes and devices. As Manager of Advanced Processing, from 1987-1994, in the Components Research Organization, lead efforts to develop advanced processing capabilities. From 1994-1998 as Director of Fab Materials, he managed chemicals and materials to manufacture advanced integrated circuit technologies. As Manager of the Materials Technology Operation, his group developed materials for future integrated circuit technologies. Since 2004, he lead the Emerging Research Materials (ERM) Work Group of the ITRS which identifies critical materials for future devices, processing, lithography, interconnects and packages. From 2004 to 2011, he was the Program Manager of External Materials Research in the Technology Strategy Organization. In January, 2011, he retired from Intel and started Garner Nanotechnology Solutions, a consulting firm, and continues as the co-chair of the ITRS ERM. |
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Mike Nelson
Chief Technology Officer of NanoInk
Michael Nelson joined NanoInk in March 2002. Mr. Nelson has over 25 years experience directing project teams and departments through all phases of new product development in companies ranging from small start-ups through Fortune 500 corporations. He has a highly successful record integrating technology and operations to transform innovative concepts into commercially successful products. Prior to joining NanoInk, Mr. Nelson served as the Senior Vice President of Engineering at Molecular Diagnostics, Inc., where he directed the design and development of innovative screening systems to assist in the early detection of cancer. As the Vice President of Systems Development, for AccuMed International, Inc., he managed contract research and development for a number of healthcare industry clients. He earned his master's degree in computer science and M.B.A. degree from DePaul University in Chicago. |
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Paul Saffo
Managing Director of Foresight, Discern Analytics
Paul is a forecaster with over two decades experience exploring the dynamics of large-scale, long-term change. In addition to positions at Discern Analytics and Singularity University, Saffo also teaches at Stanford University, where he is a Visiting Scholar in the Stanford Media X research network. Paul serves on a variety of not-for-profit boards including the Long Now Foundation, and the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. Paul's essays have appeared in numerous publications including The Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Wired, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. Paul holds degrees from Harvard College, Cambridge University and Stanford University. |
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Rob Meagley
CEO/CTO, ONE-Nanotechnologies LLC
Dr. Meagley is presently CEO, CTO and resident "Mad Scientist" at ONE Nano, a company founded to invent, develop and market photonic nanodevices and device arrays for biomarker characterization and related technology.
Prior to forming ONE Nanotechnologies and following post-doctoral research at UC-Berkeley and Cornell, Rob was Principle Investigator, Senior Staff Scientist, and the Molecules for Advanced Patterning Program Manager for Intel. In 2004 he was named Researcher-In Residence for a group he created at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs to discover, develop and commercialize advanced lithography materials.
With over 38 papers, 41 patents, and numerous awards to his name, Rob is an expert in the design and synthesis of small molecules and complex molecular systems. In addition to managing several complex, interdisciplinary teams and research programs, he has also lectured extensively on materials science chemistry and nanotechnology, and provides consulting services to the nanotechnology, MEMS and biotechnology communities. |
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Sir Fraser Stoddart
Director, Center for the Chemistry of Integrated Systems at Northwestern
Stoddart is one of the few chemists of the past quarter-century to have created a new field of organic chemistry. He pioneered development processes for the syntheses of mechanically interlocked compounds that have been employed as molecular switches and motor-molecules in the fabrication of nanoelectronic devices and NanoElectroMechanical Systems (NEMS).
Since earning his PhD from Edinburgh University (1966), Stoddart has work at numerous institutions, including Queen's University, Sheffield University, and ICI Corporate Laboratory in Runcorn. He became Chair of Organic Chemistry at Birmingham University in 1990, and then, in 1993, Head of the School of Chemistry. In 1997, he became the Saul Winstein Professor of Chemistry and then Director of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. In 2008, he joined Northwestern University as a Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry, where he is also Director of the Center for the Chemistry of Integrated Systems (CCIS).
Stoddart has authored over 875 publications, and over 300 PhD and postdoctoral students have passed through his labs. His work has been recognized by numerous international honors, including appointment by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as a Knight Bachelor for his services to chemistry and molecular nanotechnology. |
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Thomas Theis
Program Manager, New Devices and Architectures for Computing, IBM
Thomas Theis received his B.S. degree in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1972) and his Ph.D. degree from Brown University (1978), with a post-doctoral year at the Technical University of Munich before joining the Semiconductor Science and Technology Department at IBM Watson Research Center in December of 1978.
As a manager and technical strategist in the development of technology products, Theis coordinated the biggest change in chip wiring technology in thirty years (from aluminum to copper), and made important contributions to the understanding of conduction in wide-band-gap insulators and donors in III-V compound semiconductors. As IBM's world-wide director for research in the physical sciences from 1998 to 2010, he championed successful new research initiatives in nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, exploratory memory devices, quantum computing, and "green" technology. In June of 2010, he assumed his present position as Program Manager, New Devices and Architectures for Computing.
Tom is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and serves on numerous advisory boards and committees, including National Academies committees that authored reports on the National Nanotechnology Initiative, and the Report to the President and Congress on the Third Assessment of the NNI. |
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William Andregg
Founder/CEO of Halcyon Molecular
William Andregg is the CEO and founder of Halcyon Molecular. With his brother Michael Andregg, he invented Halcyon's core polymer placement technology. As CEO, William has directed Halcyon's research program and led the company through its Angel and VC financing. Promoting Halcyon Molecular, Andregg has appeared on the Internet TV show CrunchTV. William's long-term goal for Halcyon Molecular is to develop life extension therapies for human use. |
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William Goddard III
Director of Materials and Process Simulation, CalTech
Dr. Goddard is Director of the Materials and Process Simulation Center and the Charles and Mary Ferkel Professor of Chemistry and Applied Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Goddard has made many contributions to theoretical chemistry, such as the generalized valence bond (GVB) method for ab initio electronic structure calculations and the ReaxFF force field for classical molecular dynamics simulations.
He is also a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In August 2007, the American Chemical Society at its biannual national convention celebrated Goddard's 70th birthday with a 5-day symposium titled, "Bold predictions in theoretical chemistry." |
Program and speakers subject to change.
