Drexler K. Erik

K. Erik Drexler

Often described as “the founding father of nanotechnology”, Eric Drexler introduced the concept in his seminal 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which established fundamental principles of molecular engineering and outlined development paths to advanced nanotechnologies. In his 1986 book, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, he introduced a broad audience to a fundamental technology objective: using machines that work at the molecular scale to structure 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 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.

Dr. Drexler served as Chief Technical Consultant to the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, a project of the Battelle Memorial Institute with support from the Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, and Brookhaven US National Laboratories, and as Chief Technical Advisor to Nanorex, a company developing open-source design software for structural DNA nanotechnologies. He has worked in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund to explore nanotechnology-based solutions to global problems such as energy and climate change.

He is currently an Academic Visitor in residence at Oxford University where he recently completed Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization, published by PublicAffairs Books, May 2013.

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

Eric resides in Oxford, United Kingdom, with his wife, Rosa Wang.