The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is a research and development initiative which provides a framework to coordinate nanoscale research and resources among United States federal government agencies and departments.
Pulickel Madhava Panicker Ajayan, known as P. M. Ajayan, is the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering at Rice University, Houston. He is the founding chair of Rice University's Materials Science and NanoEngineering department and also holds joint appointments with the Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Prior to joining Rice, he was the Henry Burlage Professor of Material Sciences and Engineering and the director of the NYSTAR interconnect focus center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute until 2007. Known for his pioneering work of designing and carrying out the first experiments to make nanotubes intentionally.
James Mitchell Tour is an American chemist and nanotechnologist. He is a Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Menachem Elimelech is the Nancy and Clint Carlson Professor at Rice University, with joint appointments in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. Prior to his appointment at Rice University, he was the Sterling Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. Elimelech moved from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to Yale University in 1998 and founded Yale's Environmental Engineering program.
As the world's energy demand continues to grow, the development of more efficient and sustainable technologies for generating and storing energy is becoming increasingly important. According to Dr. Wade Adams from Rice University, energy will be the most pressing problem facing humanity in the next 50 years and nanotechnology has potential to solve this issue. Nanotechnology, a relatively new field of science and engineering, has shown promise to have a significant impact on the energy industry. Nanotechnology is defined as any technology that contains particles with one dimension under 100 nanometers in length. For scale, a single virus particle is about 100 nanometers wide.
Thalappil Pradeep is an institute professor and professor of chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He is also the Deepak Parekh Chair Professor. In 2020 he received the Padma Shri award for his distinguished work in the field of Science and Technology. He has received the Nikkei Asia Prize (2020), The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) prize (2018), and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 2008 by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
Green nanotechnology refers to the use of nanotechnology to enhance the environmental sustainability of processes producing negative externalities. It also refers to the use of the products of nanotechnology to enhance sustainability. It includes making green nano-products and using nano-products in support of sustainability.
Nanomaterials can be both incidental and engineered. Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are nanoparticles that are made for use, are defined as materials with dimensions between 1 and 100nm, for example in cosmetics or pharmaceuticals like zinc oxide and TiO2 as well as microplastics. Incidental nanomaterials are found from sources such as cigarette smoke and building demolition. Engineered nanoparticles have become increasingly important for many applications in consumer and industrial products, which has resulted in an increased presence in the environment. This proliferation has instigated a growing body of research into the effects of nanoparticles on the environment. Natural nanoparticles include particles from natural processes like dust storms, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and ocean water evaporation.
Zerovalent iron (ZVI) is jargon that describes forms of iron metal that are proposed for use in groundwater remediation.
Younan Xia is a Chinese-American chemist, materials scientist, and bioengineer. He is the Brock Family Chair and Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Eminent Scholar in Nanomedicine in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, with joint appointments in the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry, the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, and Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Teri W. Odom is an American chemist and materials scientist. She is the chair of the chemistry department, the Joan Husting Madden and William H. Madden, Jr. Professor of Chemistry, and a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University. She is affiliated with the university's International Institute for Nanotechnology, Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern Initiative for Manufacturing Science and Innovation, Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Graduate Program, and department of applied physics.
Nanoremediation is the use of nanoparticles for environmental remediation. It is being explored to treat ground water, wastewater, soil, sediment, or other contaminated environmental materials. Nanoremediation is an emerging industry; by 2009, nanoremediation technologies had been documented in at least 44 cleanup sites around the world, predominantly in the United States. In Europe, nanoremediation is being investigated by the EC funded NanoRem Project. A report produced by the NanoRem consortium has identified around 70 nanoremediation projects worldwide at pilot or full scale. During nanoremediation, a nanoparticle agent must be brought into contact with the target contaminant under conditions that allow a detoxifying or immobilizing reaction. This process typically involves a pump-and-treat process or in situ application.
Andrew R. Barron is a British chemist, academic, and entrepreneur. He is the Sêr Cymru Chair of Low Carbon Energy and Environment at Swansea University, and the Charles W. Duncan Jr.-Welch Foundation Chair in Chemistry at Rice University. He is the founder and director of Energy Safety Research Institute (ESRI) at Swansea University, which consolidates the energy research at the University with a focus on environmental impact and future security. At Rice University, he leads a Research Group and has served as Associate Dean for Industry Interactions and Technology Transfer.
Vicki H. Grassian is a distinguished professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. She also holds the distinguished chair in physical chemistry.
Vicki Leigh Colvin is a professor of engineering and molecular pharmacology at Brown University, and has been selected as the next dean of the Louisiana State University College of Engineering. At Brown, she is the director of the Centre for Biomedical Engineering. Her work focuses on the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Janet Gordon Hering is the former Director of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology and Professor emeritus of Biogeochemistry at ETH Zurich and EPFL. She works on the biogeochemical cycling of trace elements in water and the management of water infrastructure.
Qilin Li is a Chinese environmental engineer who is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University. She develops new technologies to analyze and treat contaminated water. Li is a Fellow of the International Water Association.
Anna Fontcuberta i Morral is the president of École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, succeeding Martin Vetterli. She is a Spanish and Swiss physicist and materials scientist. Her research focuses on nanotechnology applied in the production of solar cells and quantum technologies. She is a full professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the head of the Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials.
Arturo A. Keller is a civil and environmental engineer and an academic. He is a professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Lajos Peter Balogh, mainly referred to as Lou Balogh, is a Hungarian-American scientist known for his research on polymers, dendrimer nanocomposites, and nanomedicine. Balogh is the editor-in-chief of Precision Nanomedicine (PRNANO). Based on his career-long citation numbers, he belongs to the World's Top 2% Scientists.
