M. Reza Ghadiri is an Iranian-American chemist who studies nanoscale science and technology.
Ghadiri holds a Ph.D. degree in chemistry (1987) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is currently a Professor of chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute.
The 1998 Feynman Prize was awarded to Ghadiri for work in constructing molecular structures through the use of self-organization. [1] His lab also pioneered the development of peptide self-replication. [2]
The Foresight Institute is a Palo Alto, California-based research non-profit that promotes the development of nanotechnology and other emerging technologies. The institute holds conferences on molecular nanotechnology and awards yearly prizes for developments in the field.
Robert A. Freitas Jr. is a nanotechnology scientist.
Arnold Orville Beckman was an American chemist, inventor, investor, and philanthropist. While a professor at California Institute of Technology, he founded Beckman Instruments based on his 1934 invention of the pH meter, a device for measuring acidity, later considered to have "revolutionized the study of chemistry and biology". He also developed the DU spectrophotometer, "probably the most important instrument ever developed towards the advancement of bioscience". Beckman funded the first transistor company, thus giving rise to Silicon Valley. After retirement, he and his wife Mabel (1900-1989) were numbered among the top philanthropists in the United States.
The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology is a unit of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign dedicated to interdisciplinary research. A gift from scientist, businessman, and philanthropist Arnold O. Beckman (1900–2004) and his wife Mabel (1900–1989) led to the building of the Institute which opened in 1989. It is one of five institutions which receive support from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation on an ongoing basis. Current research at Beckman involves the areas of molecular engineering, intelligent systems, and imaging science. Researchers in these areas work across traditional academic boundaries in scientific projects that can lead to the development of real-world applications in medicine, industry, electronics, and human health across the lifespan.
Julius Rebek, Jr. is a Hungarian-born American chemist and expert on molecular self-assembly.
The Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology is an award given by the Foresight Institute for significant advances in nanotechnology. Two prizes are awarded annually, in the categories of experimental and theoretical work. There is also a separate challenge award for making a nanoscale robotic arm and 8-bit adder.
Dale Lester Boger is an American medicinal and organic chemist and former chair of the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA.
Chad Alexander Mirkin is an American chemist. He is the George B. Rathmann professor of chemistry, professor of medicine, professor of materials science and engineering, professor of biomedical engineering, and professor of chemical and biological engineering, and director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly at Northwestern University.
The Science History Institute is an institution that preserves and promotes understanding of the history of science. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it includes a library, museum, archive, research center and conference center.
SonBinh T. Nguyen is the McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence and the Dow Chemical Company Research Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University. He is also the former Director of the Integrated Sciences Program.
Mark C. Hersam is a professor of Chemistry and Materials Science Engineering at Northwestern University (2000–present) who, according to the National Science Foundation, has made "major breakthrough[s]" in the field of nanotechnology. He is a 2014 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award and a 1996 Marshall Scholar. He is also an Associate Editor of ACS Nano.
David A. Tirrell is an American chemist and the Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). A pioneer in the areas of polymer synthesis and protein biosynthesis, his research has a wide range of applications, including coatings, adhesion, lubrication, bioengineering and biomedical intervention. From 2012 to 2018, Tirrell was the Director of the Beckman Institute at Caltech. As of 2017, he serves as Caltech's Provost. He is one of very few American scientists to have been elected to all three branches of the United States National Academies: the National Academy of Science (2006), the National Academy of Engineering (2008), and the Institute of Medicine (2011). He was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019.
Phil S. Baran is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute and Member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology. He received his B.S. in chemistry from New York University in 1997 and his Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute in 2001, under the supervision of K.C. Nicolaou. He did his postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate E. J. Corey at Harvard University.
The Beckman Young Investigators Award was established by Mabel and Arnold Beckman in 1991, and is now administered by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. The Beckman Young Investigator (BYI) Program is intended to provide research support to promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers. Awardees receive a substantial grant, over a period of three years. The intent is to foster "innovative departures" and the invention of methods, instruments and materials that will open up new avenues of research in the chemical and life sciences.
Michael J. Sailor is a nanotechnology researcher and professor at the University of California, San Diego. Sailor is best known for his research on porous silicon, a nanostructured material that is prepared by electrochemical corrosion of crystalline silicon wafers.
A Beckman Fellow receives funding, usually via an intermediary institution, from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, founded by Arnold Orville Beckman and his wife Mabel. The Foundation supports programs at several institutions to encourage research, particularly the work of young researchers who might not be eligible for other sources of funding. People from a variety of different programs at different institutions may therefore be referred to as Beckman Fellows. Though most often designating postdoctoral awards in science, the exact significance of the term will vary depending on the institution involved and the type(s) of Beckman Fellowship awarded at that institution.
Nancy Makri is the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where she is the principal investigator of the Makri Research Group for the theoretical understanding of condensed phase quantum dynamics. She studies theoretical quantum dynamics of polyatomic systems, and has developed methods for long-time numerical path integral simulations of quantum dissipative systems.
Tan Weihong is a Chinese chemist. He is the University of Florida Distinguished Professor, V. T. and Louise Jackson Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florida, and also the Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Professor of Biology, and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics at Hunan University in China. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015 and The World Academy of Sciences in 2016.
Nikola Panayot Pavletich is the chair of structural biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Roya Maboudian is an American academic and researcher in the field of chemical engineering. She is professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a co-director of the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, and an editor of the IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems. She was one of the first women to earn tenure in the chemical engineering department at the University of California, Berkeley.