10th Foresight Conference
on Molecular Nanotechnology

11 to 13 October, 2002 at the Hyatt Hotel,
One Bethesda Metro, Bethesda, Maryland 20814

Two instructional tutorials on Molecular Nanotechnology
held on October 10.

General

The 10^th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology will be held at the Hyatt Hotel, One Bethesda Metro, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. The Conference will begin with a reception the evening of Thursday, October 10, and end Sunday, October 13, 2002. An intensive Tutorial on Foundations of Nanotechnology will be held on October 10.

This 2002 Conference home page will provide the information you will need about the conference and to register for the conference. After the conference is over, this page will provide the permanent archive for the conference.

Rapid advances in our ability to image, manipulate, and probe the properties of matter at the atomic scale—together with emerging insights into structure, function and self-assembly in biological systems—is bringing to fruition the tremendous promise of nanotechnology first recognized by Richard Feynman over 40 years ago. In the next decade, current research into the science and technology of nanostructures is expected to have a major impact on fields ranging from consumer electronics to space exploration and medicine.

The Foresight Institute's first Conference on Nanotechnology, which pre-dated the National Nanotechnology Initiative by a decade, was the first comprehensive conference on the topic of nanotechology. Foresight sponsored events continue to be the premiere venue for discussing new and innovative multidisciplinary research in nanotechnology. Last year's conference, the 9th in the series, attracted over 500 researchers from academic, government and industrial laboratories world-wide, and included papers from the electronics, medical, computing, and biological communities. Foresight's 10^th Conference will continue this level of excellence by providing a forum in which leaders from all disciplines delving into science and technology at the nanoscale can present and discuss their most recent results and ideas.

Download the Conference brochure in PDF format. Requires ACROBAT READER by ADOBE.

Topics Covered

The Foresight Conference covers the key topics required for an integrated understanding of molecular nanotechnology:

Products and goals

Nanostructures underlie all nanotechnologies. Their diverse physical, chemical and electronic properties determine what nanotechnologies can do.
Nanomaterials gain special mechanical, optical, and electronic properties from their nanoscale structure.
Nanodevices — including sensors, transistors, actuators, and others — will be components first of early products, and later of advanced nanosystems.
Nanoelectronics is a natural extension of the microelectronic technologies of today, expected to be a crucial application of emerging nanotechnologies.

Enabling technologies, tools, and parts

Sensors at the nanoscale can be used to recognize molecules and to probe the properties of surfaces and objects at the atomic scale.
Nanotubes provide strong, stiff building blocks with diverse electronic properties, suiting them for use in a wide range of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS).
Biomolecular machinery evolved by nature — such as the bacterial flagellar motor and the actin-myosin system of muscle — has shown the feasibility of molecular machine systems and may provide prefabricated working components.
Scanning probe instruments have led the way in imaging and manipulating molecular structures on surfaces.
Computational chemistry enables designers of molecular systems to understand which designs will produce which results, helping synthetic chemists to produce devices that will function properly in systems.
Molecular machines produce controlled motion on a molecular scale. By bringing other molecules together in a controlled way, they will one day be used to control the sequences of chemical reactions that will enable molecular manufacturing of complex nanosystems.

Enabling sciences and principles

Supramolecular chemistry — by moving beyond the traditional concern with individual molecules to a focus on building larger structures from assemblages of molecules — is a key enabling technology for a wide range of nanosystems.
Self-assembly — the principle behind supramolecular chemistry and the assembly of the molecular machinery of living systems — is central both to many present-generation nanotechnologies and to anticipated pathways toward complex nanosystems.

Abstracts

Accepted Abstracts

Submission information:

There will be oral presentations and a poster session during the conference. The poster session will be held on Friday afternoon. On Saturday there will be additional time for viewing and discussion of the posters. All those who wish either to speak or to present a poster must submit an abstract. The deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended to June 15, 2002. There will be no further extensions after June 15. The abstracts should be no longer than 500 words including references and footnotes. Each submitted abstract may include only one graphic in jpg or gif format. The size should be no larger than 250 x 250 pixels (will be displayed at 72 dpi). Abstracts not in the appropriate format will be returned without being considered.

All accepted abstracts will be permanently available on the WWW at www.foresight.org.

Information for those who wish to submit an abstract. All authors submitting an abstract must use the Abstract Submission Form, even if the abstract is sent as a separate email attachment.

Poster session: Poster size for the poster session is 4 feet x 4 feet [122 cm x 122 cm]

Conference Co-Chairs

Sponsors

Foresight Institute and the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing

Corporate Sponsors

Gold Level Sponsors

Sun Microsystems

Founded in 1982 by four idealistic young pioneers with a shared vision of decentralized, heterogenous computing systems, Sun Microsystems, Inc. has emerged as a global Fortune 500 leader in enterprise network computing, with over $8 billion in revenues and operations in 150 countries.

Zyvex

Zyvex Corporation is the first molecular nanotechnology company. We are taking an assembly-based systems approach to integrating macro, micro, and nanodevices to the real world. Our mission is to be the industry leader in adaptable, affordable, molecular-scale manufacturing. Founded in 1997, Zyvex is creating a microsystem assembler, capable of handling and assembling a variety of micro-scale parts.

Silver Level Sponsors

Foley & Lardner

Founded in 1842, Foley & Lardner is one of the oldest and largest law firms in America. The firm has more than 750 attorneys in 14 offices nationwide practicing in five departments: Business Law, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Regulatory, and Tax and Individual Planning.

The firm's highly skilled intellectual property attorneys and law clerks constitute one of the largest and most sophisticated technology groups in an integrated, general-practice law firm in the United States. The list of clients using Foley & Lardner to fill their intellectual property legal needs ranges from small entrepreneurial start-up companies to large international and multinational corporations. Foley & Lardner attorneys provide solutions and successfully service the needs of clients around the world.

Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk and Rabkin

Howard Rice is a full-service law firm with creative lawyers who solve complex problems every day. We have built our nationwide reputation through anticipating and responding quickly to our clients' needs with innovative solutions. We have over 140 attorneys in San Francisco, serving clients in the United States and worldwide, dealing with every kind of problem, including startup businesses, intellectual property, e-commerce, venture capital, securities, international transactions, financial services and complex litigation.

Sughrue Mion PLLC

We protect ideas - all ideas - and for nearly half a century we have been helping our clients develop, obtain, protect and leverage property rights borne of their intellectual capital. From a submicroscopic sequence of DNA to a vast constellation of satellites circling the globe, from publicity rights to the goodwill of a universally known brand, this is the universe of ideas we explore. And when it comes to serving our clients, we go beyond traditional boundaries, advocating innovative theories and redefining the frontiers of law as they apply to creativity and invention.

Bronze Level Sponsors

Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (JNN), American Scientific Publishers

Journal for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (JNN) is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal with a wide-ranging coverage, consolidating research activities in all disciplines of science, engineering and medicine. JNN publishes original research articles, short communications and timely state-of-the-art reviews with author's photo and short biography. For more information, please visit JNN website at www.aspbs.com/jnn.

Contributing Sponsor

Texas Nanotechnology Initiative

The Texas Nanotechnology Initiative is a consortium of industries, universities, government agencies, venture capitalists, and individuals whose goal is to establish Texas as a world leader in the discoveries, development and commercialization of nanotechnology.

Information about corporate sponsorship opportunities, or please contact the Foresight Institute

Keynote and Invited Speakers

Special Session: Panel on Venture Capital for Nanotechnology

Due to the rapid increase in interest from the venture funding community, there will be a panel discussion on nanotechnology funding featuring venture capital representatives active in nanotechnology.
Time: 5:10pm, Fri. Oct. 11

Building a Solid Business and IP Foundation for Nanotech Companies

Lunchtime presentation by Foley & Lardner

• Technology transfer agreements
• Due diligence reviews of IP Assets
• Understanding what is patentable
• Inventorship and ownership of patents
• Choosing the entity for the business: considerations relating to ownership, growth, taxes, capital information
• Compensating the investors, the entrepreneurs and the employees; considerations relating to benefits, stock options, types of stock and debt
• Financing the business: considerations relating to private placements, public offerings, types of investors
• Q & A

Tutorials on Molecular Nanotechnology

This year the Conference features two instructional tutorials, running on parallel tracks, on molecular nanotechnology.
Tutorial topics, instructors, and registration...

Proceedings - JNN Special Issue

PROCEEDINGS: The original papers from 10th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and will be available to conference attendees as an option for $35.

Submission of Accepted Papers & Posters: Authors of accepted abstracts must submit their manuscripts electronically as a PDF or MS Word file on or before October 10th 2002 to guest editors Susan Sinnott (sinnott@mse.ufl.edu) or James Spencer (jtspence@syr.edu) for review. Manuscripts will NOT be accepted after the deadline. The manuscript preparation guidelines are posted on the JNN website at: http://www.aspbs.com/jnn.

JNN will be responsible for all manuscript tracking, handling, and review processing. The submitted manuscripts will be the responsibility of JNN GUEST EDITORS and AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHERS.

As of January, 2003, the papers for the proceedings are still in review. The special issue of JNN will most likely appear about April, 2003.