Nanotechnology, as an enabling technology, is expected to have an impact on electronics, computing, data storage, communications, health and medicine, energy and environment, national security and other sectors of the economy. These are also areas of great interest to the IEEE community. This talk will introduce novel nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and inorganic nanowires and discuss ongoing key developments in many of the above application areas.

Meyya Meyyappan is Director of the Center for Nanotechnology as well as Senior Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. He is a founding member of the Interagency Working Group on Nanotechnology(IWGN) established by the Office of Science and Technology Policy(OSTP). The IWGN is responsible for putting together the National Nanotechnology Initiative.

Dr. Meyyappan's group, consisting of about 60 scientists, has been engaged in various aspects of nanotechnology (see http://www.ipt.arc.nasa.gov). He is a member of IEEE, AIChE, AVS, ECS, ASME, and MRS. He is a Fellow of the IEEE. He is Fellow of the ECS. He is the IEEE Distinguished Lecturer on Nanotechnology and ASME's Distinguished Lecturer on Nanotechnology. For his work and leadership in nanotechnology, he has been awarded NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal and Arthur Flemming Award by the Arthur Flemming Foundation and George Washington University. For his contributions to nanotechnology education and training, he has been awarded the 2003-2004 Engineer of the Year award by the San Francisco section of the AIAA.