Often described as “the father of nanotechnology,” Eric Drexler set the technical direction for the field in his seminal 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which established fundamental principles of molecular engineering and development paths to advanced nanotechnologies. In his 1986 book, Engines of Creation, he introduced a broad audience to the central technology objective: using machines that work at the molecular scale to restructure 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 his textbook 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.

Presently, Dr. Drexler serves as Chief Technical Advisor to Nanorex, a company developing design software for molecular engineering. He recently served as Chief Technical Consultant to the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, a project of the Battelle Memorial Institute and its participating US National Laboratories. He is currently working in a collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund of Sweden to explore technology solutions to global issues such as energy and climate change.

Drexler was awarded a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Molecular Nanotechnology (the first degree of its kind).

Bill Kroll's experience spans more than 30 years, including fifteen years of service to Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc.,

Kroll also served as Executive Vice President of Business Development at Emcore, where he was instrumental in taking that company public.

Kroll has penned more than 50 papers in the areas of physical and chemical vapor deposition for semiconductor technology and is a member of IEEE, SEMI, SPIE, SAE, The Electrochemical Society and MRS. He currently serves on the boards of the CGA, AeA, IOMA, Circle of Life, Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc. and Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation. Kroll was inducted into the NJ High Tech Hall of Fame in 2004, was named as one of the top 25 Entrepreneurs in NJ by NJ Biz in 2006, was appointed by the Governor of NJ to his Commission on Outsourcing and Off-shoring in 2007 and in October 2007 was awarded the Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Eagle Scout Award as well as being named lifetime member and Trustee of the Boy Scouts of America. Under Kroll’s leadership, Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc. was named Large Company of the Year by the NJ Technology Council in 2006.

Born in Mexico City in 1968, obtained his B.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics (Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico) and his doctorate degree in 1998 (Sussex University, UK) under the suppervision of Sir Prof. Harold W. Kroto (Nobel Laureate, FRS) and David R. M. Walton (FRSC). He has co-authored more than 200 publications in international journals, and counts with more than 5000 independent citations to his work (His H index is 43). He has been awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, the Mexican National Prize for Chemistry, the Javed Husain Prize (UNESCO), the TWAS Prize in Engineering, among others. He is member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and elected Fellow of the TWAS. He is currently full Professor at IPICYT (Mexico), and is leader of the National Laboratory for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Research (LINAN). His research now concentrates on the theory, synthesis, characterization and applications of novel layered nanomaterials including carbon nanotubes.

Dr. Yaniv is an authority in electro-optics, liquid crystal technology, amorphous semiconductors, technology commercialization and business management. He has published over 100 articles, holds more than 200 patents, and has extensive contacts in the U.S., Europe, Israel and the Far East.

Earlier, Dr. Yaniv held ranking positions with the Practical Engineering College, Beer-Sheeba; National Institute for Technical Training, Tel-Aviv; and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

In 1999, Dr. Yaniv introduced a new expression of kinetic art (Digital Window), allowing static two- or three- dimensional artworks to become dynamic and interactive.

In March 2000, Dr. Yaniv was nominated and he accepted the honorific title of Senior Research Fellow of the IC2 Institute of University of Texas.

"Nanotechnology will completely restructure industries and economies and is recognized as technology disruptive to every field. Entire business segments are going to disappear while new exciting segments will be created. Major government initiatives by countries all over the world and large funds have already been committed to win the nanotechnology race."

Dr. Michael T. Postek is the Chief of the Precision Engineering Division and has been the Program Manager of the Nanomanufacturing Program in the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr. Postek was also the Assistant to the NIST Director for Nanotechnology and is both a nationally and internationally recognized expert in nanometrology and scanning electron microscope (SEM) critical dimension (CD) metrology.

Dr Postek received his B. A. from the University of South Florida (1973); M. S. from Texas A&M University (1974); Ph.D. from Louisiana State University (1980) and an Executive M. S. in Technology Management from the University of Maryland (1997).

General Manager for Seiko Epson Corporation (Epson), Japan, responsible for analyzing and developing industry collaborations for emerging technologies which compliment Epson's core competencies. Serves a role akin to that of Vice President of Business Development whereby monitoring and mapping emerging materials, processes, intellectual property, markets, and applications. Creates and manages relationships with innovative organizations throughout the emerging printed electronics industry. His responsibilities include monitoring and nurturing emerging technologies in displays, semiconductors, RFID, biotech, nanotech, and optical⁄data communications technology sectors. Is a frequent speaker at emerging technology and business conferences. Additionally, Mr Patterson serves on a few technology start-up advisor boards.

A Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at University of Texas at Dallas, Dr. Moon Kim is the Director of UTD's new Nano-Characterization Facility. Dr. Kim is also an adjunct professor in the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at the UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Kim's expertise includes high resolution electron microscopy, heterogeneous materials integration by wafer bonding. He has authored/co-authored over 150 refereed papers. His primary research focus is nano-fabrication and the manipulation and characterization of materials for nano-electronic and functional 3D nanostrucutured system applications.

Dr. Kolesar has 27 years of experience and devotion to the design, fabrication, modeling and experimental characterization of microsensors and microactuators. This experience was first gained while serving as a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force, and since 1993, as the W. A. Moncrief Professor of Engineering at Texas Christian University (TCU). His current research includes microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), silicon micromachined gas chromatography systems, and organic semiconductors. DARPA, the NSF, and several Metroplex corporations fund his research. He lectures and publishes nationally and internationally on MEMS and is a member of numerous professional societies.

Phil has twenty five years of semiconductor industry experience including executive management, business development, yield engineering, chip manufacturing, and materials research.
Mr. Bryson has held a number of positions in his career, including key roles at Tokyo Electron, KLA-Tencor, and Motorola.
Mr. Bryson holds a B.S. Degree in Chemistry and Materials Research

Bio:

Dr. Will Chism is the inventor of Xitronix’ Polarization Modulation Photo-Reflectance technologies for process control of semiconductor nanomanufacturing. Dr. Chism has also implemented and executed the intellectual property strategy at Xitronix.

Prior to founding Xitronix, Will was the lead research scientist and project manager for the International Sematech Advanced Metrology Development project.

Dr. Chism holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Woody has received numerous awards and grants such as being named one of Charlotte’s top 40 young entrepreneurs in 2007, recipient of business development grant from North Carolina’s Science Board and Technology, and an NCIDEA grant. He is also the recipient of numerous innovation research grants such as Lemelson’s Foundation’s National Collegiate Inventors Award and NASA ‘s prestigious graduate research award. Dr. Woody manages projects ranging from microsensing development to microscale pick and place to in-process instrumentation integration. These efforts have accumulated 2 Patents, 10 Pending patents, multiple publications including peer reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, and tradeshow articles in precision instrumentation.

Research interests focused on nanoscience, nanotechnology, phonon engineering and thermal transport. Recipient of the 2006 NanoVic Prize for Innovation in Nanotechnology from Nanotechnology Victoria, Australia. Recipient of numerous awards from Republic of Uzbekistan for "Development of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology." Numerous publications to his credit in the last two years.

Steffen Pilotek studied chemistry and received his Dipl.-Chem. and Dr. rer. nat. from the Universitat Bielefeld (Germany). After working as a researcher at the Institute for New Materials (INM, Saarbrucken) for two years, he joined the nanotechnology group of Buhler AG (Switzerland) in 2002 where he started as development manager and became senior manager in the newly established subsidiary of Buhler PARTEC GmbH. Since 2007 he works for Buhler Inc. (U.S.A.) as Business Development Director Particle Technology (PARTEC).

Donald J. Hayes holds a B.S. and M.S. in Physics from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Rice University. He has over 30 years experience managing research and development of process driven manufacturing for ink-jet printers, semiconductor devices, and electronic assemblies while at MicroFab, Polaroid, Mead Office Systems, Texas Instruments, and Boeing. Dr. Hayes has been awarded 58 U.S. patents and has 3 patent applications outstanding. He is a member of the Engineering Counsel for the Eric Johnson School of Engineering at the Univ. of Texas at Dallas and a member of the Industrial Advisory Committee at the University of Arkansas.
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Dr. Hayes founded MicroFab Technologies, Inc. in 1984 as a research and development company focusing on applications of ink jet technology.

Key scientist with highly respected research group, focused on ferroelectric memories and fundamental aspects of nanomaterials and synthesis. Brings extensive studies in physics, meteorology and chemistry.

Dr. Tim Dallas is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas Tech University. His research includes the development of innovative MEMS devices and understanding the fundamental aspects of stiction. He is the principal developer of TTU’s MEMS courses., serves on the governing board of the TEXMEMS conference, and was co-chair for SEMATECH’s MEMS TWG, part of Texas’ State Strategy on Advanced Technologies. Prof. Dallas received a B.A. in physics from the University of Chicago and a PhD from Texas Tech in physics. He has worked as a Technology Engineer for ISI Lithography and was a post-doctoral researcher in at the University of Texas.

Teena James and Manu Sebastian Mannoor are graduate students in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology and are currently working as Graduate Research Assistants at the Microelectronics Research Center of NJIT.

Javad Foroughi is a PhD Candidate at the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), University of Wollongong, Australia. His Research Project is titled “Development of Actuators by use of Polypyrrole and Polyaniline Fibres” and his supervisors are Prof.Geoffrey Spinks and Prof.Gordon Wallace

His prizes and honours include receiving the No. 1 of B.Sc. degree in University and the research license from Ministry of Industries and Mines of Iran.

Fred Patterson (“The SBIR Coach”) has been involved with guiding companies through technology development into commercialization for over forty years, including having worked with the SBIR Program and all of its aspects virtually since its inception. In addition to SBIR and other Federal government sponsored funding programs, Fred also works with several State sponsored technology accelerator initiatives, including the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Fred also works with many Angel, Venture Capital, and other private sector investment sources to help his clients prepare for the challenges of seeking, securing, and managing funding for commercialization and growth.