ME Professors Arun Majumdar and Al Pisano leading the way for ASME in Nanotechnology
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has drawn up a "Nanotechnology Steering Committee." The Committee has Professor Albert P. Pisano as its Chairman and Professor Arun Majumdar as one of its members. There are approximately eight other members on the committee drawn from industry, government and academia.As a result of the efforts of the committee, and especially as a result of the initiative taken by Professor Arun Majumdar, the ASME has issued a formal position paper on Nanotechnology, giving its full societal endorsement to this newly emerging and very exciting field. ASME's statement follows:
Nanotechnology is the science and engineering of assembling materials and components atom by atom, or molecule by molecule, and integrating them into useful devices. It uses new discoveries to work at the scale of a nanometer (one billionth of a meter -- ten thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair).Nanoscale science and engineering involves research in the length scale regime where matter shows characteristics that are markedly different from single atoms at smaller scales and microstructures at larger scales. Exploration, understanding, and subsequently, applications of nanoscale phenomena will form the backbone and foundation for the next generation of technologies that will continue the r emarkable growth of the US and world economies. The impact is likely to be felt in areas as diverse as computing and information technology, health care and biotechnology, environment, energy, transportation, manufacturing, space exploration, and national security.
The Federal government, academia and industry will play vital roles in advancing nanotechnology. However, a strong government role is essential because most of the work currently required involves research with a much longer time horizon than what most industries can support. The frontiers of nanotechnology also have the potential to draw a new generation of young people into careers in science, engineering and technology. We, therefore, applaud the vision of the executive and legislative branches of government to invest through the NNI in research on nanotechnology.
While there is no doubt about the promise of nanotechnology, we also understand that its true potential can only be realized if we develop the ability to design, synthesize, manipulate, and control nanoscale systems. These are challenging tasks that require the integration and generation of knowledge in various engineering and science disciplines. Mechanical engineering, and ASME in particular, has always been at the forefront of integrating such knowledge. To make NNI a success, ASME will bring together engineers and scientists from various disciplines and provide a variety of forums for research interactions, while also creating programs for education, outreach and technology transfer.
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Latest update: October 9, 2000
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