Biography
K. Eric Drexler is a researcher and author whose work focuses on advanced nanotechnologies and directions for current research. More broadly, he examines the projected capabilities and consequences of advanced physical technologies, an area often neglected or overshadowed in the study of technological change. He brings to this area an approach based not on speculative predictions, or on extrapolating trends, but instead on a physics-based analysis of the scope of technologies allowed by the laws of nature.
Beginning in 1977, Eric explored a vision first articulated by Richard Feynman, leading him to study the physical principles of productive nanosystems (nanomachines that can be used to make products with atomic precision). This work resulted in his 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and to subsequent books, including Engines of Creation, in which he outlined the prospects for advanced molecular manufacturing technology—its capabilities, their medical, environmental, and economic implications, dangers and security risks, and potential policy responses. Engines introduced the term “nanotechnology” to describe the Feynman vision and the technologies it will enable.
He later authored Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation, a textbook that draws on the principles of chemistry, physics, computation, and systems engineering to describe the fundamentals of molecular manufacturing and how to achieve it. His publications in the area of molecular nanotechnology are cited as foundational in protein engineering, nanomachinery, and mechanosynthesis. He helped lead development of the 2007 Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, a project managed by Battelle and hosted by several of the U.S. National Laboratories.
Eric Drexler was born in Alameda, CA in 1955. He obtained SB and SM degrees from MIT, and was awarded a PhD from MIT in Molecular Nanotechnology (the first degree of its kind), supervised by Marvin Minsky. His book Nanosystems received the AAP award for Most Outstanding Computer Science Book of 1992.
Dr. Drexler serves as Chief Technical Advisor to Nanorex, a company developing open-source design software for structural DNA nanotechnologies. He consults and speaks on how current research can be directed more effectively toward high-payoff objectives, and addresses the implications of emerging technologies for our future, including their use to solve, rather than delay, large-scale problems such as global warming.
Eric resides in Los Altos, California, with his wife, Rosa Wang.
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2004
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