The First Foresight Conference
on Nanotechnology
 The
first in the series of Foresight Conferences
on Molecular Nanotechnology.
The conference was held October 27-29, 1989.
This was the first comprehensive conference on the topic
of nanotechology. The conference drew participants from three
continents and many disciplines.
Conference Location
Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA
It was to have been held at Stanford University, but an
earthquake the previous week forced relocation of most of the
sessions to the Garden Court Hotel, Palo Alto, California.
Conference Sponsors
The First Foresight Conference on Nanotechnology, chaired
by K. Eric Drexler, was cosponsored by the Foresight
Institute and the Global Business Network and was hosted by
the Stanford University Department of Computer Science.
Financial support was generously provided by the E.I. du Pont
de Nemours & Co., Inc.
Program
Titles and affiliations are given as of 1989 and are
not necessarily current.
Friday evening, October 27. 7-11 PM
Informal reception at Garden Court Hotel, Palo Alto
Sponsored by Global Business
Network
Welcoming remarks by Nils Nilsson,
Chairman of Stanford Department of Computer Science
Saturday morning, October 28, 8:30 AM - 12
Registration at Garden Court Hotel
Chairman's overview and introduction
Eric Drexler, Visiting Scholar
Stanford Department of Computer Science
Control of solid state structure in molecular materials
by electrostatic self-assembly
Michael D. Ward, Research Scientist
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
Atomic imaging and positioning
John Foster, IBM Almaden Research
Manager, Molecular Studies for Manufacturing
Saturday afternoon, 1 - 5 PM
Protein design
Tracy Handel, Visiting Research Scientist
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
Molecular modeling and design
Jay Ponder, Associate Research Scientist
Dept. of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale Univ.
Molecular electronics
Robert Birge, Prof., Chemistry Dept.
Director, Center for Molecular Electronics, Syracuse Univ.
Molecular modeling and other demonstrations, informal
discussion
Saturday evening at Stanford Faculty Club
Quantum transistors and integrated circuits
Federico Capasso, AT&T Bell Labs
Head of Quantum Phenomena and Device Research Dept.
What could we do with a trillion processors?
Bill Joy, VP Research and Development
Sun Microsystems
Sunday morning, October 29, 9 AM - 12
Nanotechnology from a micromachinist's viewpoint
Joseph Mallon, Co-President, Nova Sensor
Theoretical limits to computation
Norman Margolus, Research Associate
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
Strategies for molecular systems engineering
Eric Drexler, Visiting Scholar
Stanford Department of Computer Science
Technical panel: What are the major problems to be
overcome in designing and building molecular systems?
Sunday afternoon
Molecular engineering in Japan: Progress toward
nanotechnology
Hiroyuki Sasabe, Head of Biopolymer Physics Laboratory
Frontier Research Program, RIKEN
The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Japan
Possible medical spin-offs on the way to nanotechnology
Greg Fahy, Project Leader for Organ Cryopreservation
American Red Cross Transplantation Laboratory
Hopes and fears of an environmentalist for
nanotechnologies
Lester Milbrath, Prof. of Political Science and Sociology
Director, Research Program in Environment and Society
State Univ. of New York at Buffalo
Risk assessment
Ralph Merkle, Member, Research Staff
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
Economic consequences
Gordon Tullock, Prof. of Economics and Political Science
Univ. of Arizona
Living with explosively growing technology
Arthur Kantrowitz, Prof. of Engineering, Dartmouth College
Consequences panel: What public policy pitfalls should be
avoided in nanotechnology development and regulation?
Molecular modeling and other demonstrations, informal
discussions
End
Conference Proceedings
The conference proceedings are available in book form.
Nanotechnology: Research and Perspectives
edited by BC
Crandall and James
Lewis (1992, MIT Press, hardbound)
ISBN 0-262-03195-7. 381 + ix pages. Includes bibliographic
references and index.
This heavily illustrated volume of proceedings from the First
Foresight Conference on Nanotechnology gives a good overview
of the various fields contributing to molecular
nanotechnology development.
In addition to 18 chapters representing the talks and panel
discussions from the conference, there are two appendices,
which reprint:
- "Machines of Inner Space" - an article
written by K. Eric Drexler for the 1990
Yearbook of Science and the Future, published
by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
- "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom: An
Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics" -- a
prescient talk given by Richard Feynman in 1959 and
published by California Institute of Technology in Engineering
and Science magazine in 1960.
Articles about this book appear in Update
12 and in Update
15.
The Book Order Form may
be used to order this book from the Foresight Institute.
This
book may also be ordered from our online bookstore in
association with Amazon.com.
Update
articles about the Conference
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