Nanotechnology
Program Managers: Hyungsub Choi and Jody Roberts
Program Associate: Chi Chan

The nanotechnology program explores nanotechnology’s surprisingly long history while supplementing current policy discussions with reasoned analysis. In collaboration with academic, government, and nonprofit partners, the program sponsors conferences, preserves significant documents and instruments, and publishes white papers and journal articles.

Major themes include

• The development of academic nanocenters;
• The role of charismatic scientists in founding nanotechnology programs; and
• The relationship between large and small firms in inventing and bringing to market nanotechnology products.

The nanotechnology program also conducts and publishes oral histories in conjunction with the Center for Nanotechnology in Society of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Recent conference
Joint Wharton–Chemical Heritage Foundation Symposium on the Social Studies of Nanotechnology

Podcast
Former nanotechnology program manager Cyrus Mody discusses the history and future implications of nanotech.

Chemical Heritage articles
"Chemistry, Microscopy, and the Nanoworld," by Cyrus Mody. A history of chemical microscopy from its 17th-century beginnings to today's cutting-edge applications in nanotechnology.

"Garden of Nanotech: A Role for the Social Sciences and Humanities in Nanotechnology," by Cyrus Mody. Nanotechnology offers solutions to looming global crises such as energy and water shortages—but the effort requires research from across academic disciplines.