250-word Journal Bio of Robert A. Freitas Jr.
Author of Nanomedicine
Robert A. Freitas Jr. is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) in Palo Alto, California, and was a Research Scientist at Zyvex Corp. (Richardson, Texas), the first molecular nanotechnology company, during 2000-2004. He received B.S. degrees in Physics and Psychology from Harvey Mudd College in 1974 and a J.D. from University of Santa Clara in 1979. Freitas co-edited the 1980 NASA feasibility analysis of self-replicating space factories and in 1996 authored the first detailed technical design study of a medical nanorobot ever published in a peer-reviewed mainstream biomedical journal. More recently, Freitas is the author of Nanomedicine, the first book-length technical discussion of the potential medical applications of molecular nanotechnology and medical nanorobotics; the first two volumes of this 4-volume series were published in 1999 and 2003 by Landes Bioscience. His research interests include: nanomedicine, medical nanorobotics design, molecular machine systems, diamond mechanosynthesis or DMS (theory and experimental pathways), molecular assemblers and nanofactories, and self-replication in machine and factory systems. He has published 33 refereed journal publications, 4 books, 61 other publications and several contributed book chapters, filed the first patent on diamond mechanosynthesis, and co-authored Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines (2004), another first-of-its-kind technical treatise. Freitas won the 2009 Feynman Prize in nanotechnology for theory, the 2007 Foresight Prize in Communication, and the 2006 Guardian Award from Lifeboat Foundation, and was awarded the first patent on diamond mechanosynthesis on 30 March 2010.
Last updated on 12 April 2010