Speakers
Keynote Speakers
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Jurron
Bradley
Senior Analyst
Lux Research, Inc.
Jurron is a senior analyst at Lux Research, leading the Nanomaterials Intelligence Service. He speaks frequently at nanotechnology conferences and has led the development of nanomaterials research including the major studies, “Nanomaterials State of the Market Q3 2008: Stealth Success, Broad Impact” and “Nanomaterials State of the Market Q1 2009: Cleantech’s Dollar Investments, Penny Returns”.
Before joining Lux Research, Jurron worked at Praxair, Inc., where he designed air separation and argon recycle plants and managed a thermodynamics lab. He also led and patented research efforts to reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired boilers and worked on the development of technology to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from coal-fired boilers. He later joined Praxair’s technology planning and strategy group where he worked with the Chief Technology Officer to develop strategic efforts for the entire research and development organization.
Jurron received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University and his doctorate in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he quantified the consolidation process of fiber-reinforced polymer composites.
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Scott Livingston
Managing Director
Axiom Capital Management Inc.
Scott Livingston is a Managing Director of Axiom Capital Management Inc. (Axiom) and head of the Livingston Group, an investment and corporate advisory group within Axiom focused on nanotechnology. Axiom Capital Management Inc. provides wealth management, investment banking, prime brokerage and private equity services.
Mr. Livingston has been called “sharp and highly connected” by the Forbes Wolfe Nanotechnology Report (July 1, 2005) and has been an invited speaker on nanotechnology investment trends at the Harvard Club, the Nanobusiness Alliance, the Cambridge Healthtech Institute, Nanotechnology.com, the International Business Forum, the Delaware Technology Park, the Business Executives for National Security, Hilary Clinton’s Jobs for New York, and has presented to half a dozen state pension leaders across the country. Scott is also the creator of the annual Axiom Capital Management “Livingston Nanotechnolgy Conference”, one of the largest nanotechnology conferences of the year.
Previously, Scott has served as a Senior Vice President – Investment Management at Lehman Brothers, where he began his nanotechnology focus. Prior to joining Lehman Brothers in 2000, Scott was a Director of the Private Client Group at SG Cowen Securities, and prior to that was at Drexel and Smith Barney.
Scott is a SUNY Albany graduate. He is a board member of the NanoBusiness Alliance and a founding board member of the NY Nanobusiness Alliance. Scott sits on the board of the Nanoethics Group and the Dolan DNA Learning Center at the Coldspring Harbor Labs. He is married with three children and lives in Long Island, NY.
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E. Clayton Teague, Ph.D.
Director
National Nanotechnology Coordination Office
Clayton is Director of the Federal National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO), being appointed in April 2003. He also is serving as Chair of the American National Standards Institute Technical Advisory Group to the ISO Technical Committee on Nanotechnologies (ISO TC 229). He holds a BS and MS in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a PhD in physics from the University of North Texas.
Beginning with his quantum mechanical tunneling work, he has been working in the some of the fields now known as nanotechnology since 1968. His work has included designing, constructing, and using scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs), atomic force microscopes (AFMs), and interferometers for ultra-high accuracy dimensional metrology of surfaces and micrometer to nanometer-scale features. He has authored or coauthored over 70 papers and managed a number of large projects in these fields.
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Daniel Wolfe
President, COO, CFO and Managing Director
Daniel joined Harris & Harris Group in mid-2004. Prior to joining the Harris & Harris Group, Daniel was a consultant to Nanosys, Inc., CW Group, and Bioscale, Inc., and was the Co-founder and President of Scientific Venture Assessments, Inc., a provider of scientific analysis of prospective investments for private equity placements and of scientific expertise to high-technology companies. He graduated from Harvard University with a Ph.D. and A.M. in Chemistry. He was a NSF Predoctoral Fellow at Harvard, and his thesis advisor was Professor George Whitesides. He also graduated from Rice University with a B.A. in Chemistry, where he worked with Professor Naomi Halas, and his honors included the Zevi and Bertha Salsburg Memorial Award in Chemistry and the Presidential Honor Role. He has published over 15 articles in scientific peer-reviewed journals. Daniel works closely with a number of portfolio companies including Ensemble Discovery, Nanosys, Nantero, Nextreme Thermal Solutions, and SiOnyx.
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Speakers
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Wade Adams, Ph.D.
Director
Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology
Dr. Wade Adams is the Director of the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University. The Smalley Institute is devoted to the development of new innovations on the nanometer scale by coordinating and supporting nanoscience and nanoengineering research of over 90 faculty members. Some current thrusts include research in carbon nanotubes, nanoporous membranes, molecular electronics and computing, and diagnostic and therapeutic medical applications of buckyballs and nanoshells. The Smalley Institute is part of a major initiative at Rice to expand activities in nano, bio, info and enviro science and engineering, and to expand interactions with the Texas Medical Center through the Alliance for NanoHealth.
Dr. Adams retired from the US Air Force senior executive ranks in January 2002, as the Chief Scientist of the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Adams was educated at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Massachusetts.
For the past 33 years he has conducted research in polymer physics, concentrating on structure-property relations in high-performance organic materials. He is internationally known for his research in high-performance rigid-rod polymer fibers, X-ray scattering studies of fibers and liquid crystalline films, polymer dispersed liquid crystals, and theoretical studies of ultimate polymer properties. He has written more than 200 publications on these topics, including several review articles and two edited books, has four patents (one licensed), and has given over 600 technical presentations. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Dr. Adams retired from the Air Force Reserve in the rank of Colonel in 1998.
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Pulickel M. Ajayan, Ph.D.
Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson
Professor in Engineering
Materials Science and Nanotechnology
Ajayan's research has been in the field of nanotechnology and has resulted in advances in carbon nanotube technology. In 1992, at the NEC Fundamental Research Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan (the lab of Sumio Iijima, the discoverer of nanotubes), he teamed with Thomas Ebbesen to develop the first method for making macroscopic quantities of nanotubes. They demonstrated that nanotubes can be produced in bulk quantities by varying the arc-evaporation conditions. The experiment involved placing two graphite rods millimeters apart, and wiring them to a power supply. As 100 amperes of current sparked between the rods, hot plasma was created by the vaporization of carbon. Some of this plasma underwent condensation and formed nanotubes.
Ajayan’s research interests are mainly focused on the synthesis and characterization of one-dimensional nanostructures with special emphasis on carbon nanotubes, with more than 3000 citations for his work in this area. He, along with Vinod P. Veedu, Anyuan Cao and Mehrdad N. Ghasemi Nejhad have been awarded a Guinness World Record for creating the smallest nanotube brushes with bristles. According to a Science Watch Analysis, he is the 7th most cited author in Nanotechnology for the period of 1992-2002. In August 2007, he was in the news again for collaborating with several other researchers on the development of the world's first paper battery, which utilizes carbon nanotubes embedded within paper. In a brief interview with Discover Magazine, Ajayan stated he believes the paper battery will have many important future applications in industry and medicine. In 2008, Pulickel Ajayan's team created the darkest material known to man — a carpet of carbon nanotubes that reflects only 0.045% of the light.
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Andrew R. Barron, Ph.D.
Charles W. Duncan, Jr. - Welch Chair of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science
Rice University
With BSc and PhD degrees from Imperial College and performing post-doctoral research at UT Austin, Barron spent eight years on the faculty at Harvard University before coming to Rice in 1995 where he is the Charles W. Duncan, Jr. - Welch Chair of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science at Rice University. His research is currently focused on the application of nanotechnology to fundamental problems in energy and health research. Research from Prof. Barron's research group is the core to three Rice start-up companies. Oxane Materials, NatCore, and Vanguard Solar, whose business ranges from oil and gas production to solar power systems. The technology basis for the first start-up to originate from the Barron Group (Gallia, Inc) came from a collaboration with Dr. Al Hepp, then at NASA, who is the technical founder of Nanotech Innovations, making this a 17 year collaboration! Prof. Barron created the first educational programs at Rice to span the Science, Engineering and Management. He is also actively involved with educational programs with the Rice section of the Society of Automotive Engineers.
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Vicki Colvin, Ph.D.
Kenneth S. Pitzer-Schlumberger Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Director, Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology
Colvin received her Bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics from
Stanford University in 1988, and in 1994 obtained her Ph.D. in
chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where she worked
under the guidance of Dr. Paul Alivisatos. During her time at the
University of California, Berkeley, Colvin was awarded the American
Chemical Society's Victor K. LaMer Award for her work in colloid and
surface chemistry. Colvin completed her postdoctoral work at AT&T
Bell Labs.
In
1996, Colvin was recruited by Rice University to expand its
nanotechnology program. Today, she serves as Professor of Chemistry at
Rice University as well as Director of its Center for Biological and
Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN). CBEN is one of the nations’ six
Nanoscience and Engineering Centers funded by the National Science
Foundation. One of CBEN's primary areas of interest is the application
of nanotechnology to the environment.
Colvin has received
numerous accolades for her teaching abilities, including Phi Beta
Kappa's Teaching Prize for 1998-1999 and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher
Scholar Award in 2002. In 2002, she was also named one of Discover
Magazine's "Top 20 Scientists to Watch" and received an Alfred P. Sloan
Fellowship.
Colvin is also a frequent contributor to Advanced
Materials, Physical Review Letters and other peer-reviewed journals,
and holds patents to four inventions.
Colvin’s area of
expertise is nanoparticle toxicity and quantum dots in novel settings.
Her research also focuses on investigating and developing nanoscience
at the “wet/dry” interface. Her research activities explore interface
between nanomaterials and aqueous systems at multiple length scales,
including interactions with solvents, biomolecules, cells,
whole-organisms, and the environment.
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David W. Hobson, Ph.D., DABT
Chief Scientific Officer
David is the Chief Scientific Officer for nanoTox Inc., headquartered in Austin, Texas, an international nanotechnology toxicological evaluation and risk assessment firm. He is also President of LoneStar PharmTox LLC in Boerne, Texas and serves as a consultant to government and industry clients on product and technology development issues for pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology, wound healing and tissue repair therapeutics. His former positions include: Vice President for Research and Development, Chrysalis Biotechnology; Vice President, Medical Product Research and Development, Healthpoint, Ltd.; Director of Pharmaceutical Sciences at DPT Laboratories Ltd.; Vice President of Medical Research and Development and a Research Fellow at Battelle Memorial Institute; and Director of Applied Toxicology, Naval Medical Research Institute. He is a past president of the American College of Toxicology and has served as President of the Dermal Toxicology specialty section, a dermal toxicology and nanotechnology session chairperson for both the Society of Toxicology and American College of Toxicology. He is currently a member of the Nanotoxicology and Dermal Toxicology specialty section of the Society of Toxicology as well as of the Editorial Advisory Board for the International Journal of Toxicology and has been intimately involved in the research and development of wound healing, infection prevention, dermatological, oral and tissue repair products intended for human and veterinary use. He has been involved in various aspects of pharmaceutical, medical device and cosmetic development including the discovery through production of various products that apply nanotechnology.
Dave holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nebraska as well as Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Texas A&M University. His principal fields of training and expertise are in toxicology and pharmacology. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology and is a member of the American College of Toxicology, Society of Toxicology, Southwestern Association of Toxicologists, Roundtable of Toxicology Consultants, Wound Healing Society, Association for Advanced Wound Care and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dave also holds an adjunct faculty position at the University of the Incarnate Word and currently teaches courses in Biophysics, Radiation Biology, and Nuclear Pharmacy. He has authored or co-authored articles and book chapters on dermatoxicology, gastrointestinal toxicology, pharmacology and toxicology study design, nanomaterials safety, pharmaceutical manufacturing and product formulation, as other aspects of pharmaceutical research and development.
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John Miller
Vice President, Business Development, Arrowhead Research
John serves as VP of Business Development at Arrowhead Research, a publicly traded company investing in nanotechnology. John has been involved in identifying and developing new investment opportunities for Arrowhead. He was a co-founder of Unidym and has guided the company’s M&A, financing, and intellectual property strategies. Recently, John has been involved in launching Agonn Systems, which is focused on using nanomaterials for energy storage applications.
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Jennifer L. West, Ph.D.
Cameron Professor and Bioengineering Department Chair
Rice University
Jennifer is the Cameron Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University,
as well as the department chair. Professor West was one of the
founding members of the Department of Bioengineering, building it to a
top ten program over the past twelve years.
Professor
West’s research focuses on the development of novel biofunctional
materials. Part of her program has developed nanoparticle-based
approaches to biophotonics therapeutics and diagnostics. An example of
this work is the application of near-infrared absorbing nanoparticles
for photothermal tumor ablation. In animal studies, this therapeutic
strategy has demonstrated very high efficacy with minimal side effects
or damage to surrounding normal tissues.
In 2000, Professor West
founded Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc. to commercialize the
nanoparticle-assisted photothermal ablation technology, now called
AuroLase. Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc., located in Houston, is the
recipient of a NIST ATP Award. Professor West is a director of the
company.
Professor West has received numerous accolades for her
work. In 2008, The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of
Texas honored her with the O’Donnell Prize in Engineering as the top
engineer in the state. Also in 2008, Dr. West was named a Fellow of
the Biomedical Engineering Society. In 2006, she was named one of 20
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors, recognizing integration of
world class research and teaching. She has been listed by MIT
Technology Review as one of the 100 most innovative young scientists
and engineers world wide. Other recognitions include the Christopher
Columbus Foundation Frank Annunzio Award for scientific innovation,
Nanotechnology Now’s Best Discovery of 2003, Small Times Magazine’s
Researchers of the Year in 2004, and the Society for Biomaterials
Outstanding Young Investigator Award.
Professor West has
authored more than 95 research articles. She also holds 14 patents
that have been licensed to seven different companies. She is a member
of the Bioengineering, Technology, and Surgical Sciences study section
at NIH, and has served on numerous other review boards for NIH and
NSF. She has also been a member of the Defense Sciences Study Group.
Her laboratory receives funding from NIH, NSF, Howard Hughes Medical
Institute, and DOD.
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