NAOMI J. HALAS, Ph.D., professor in electrical and computer engineering, professor of chemistry, Rice University, Fellow in The American Physical Society.

"The promise of Nanotechnology to fundamentally change the world around us is daunting: the goal of creating new materials and devices 'from the bottom up' is essentially an exploratory science, whose relevance in our daily lives may be years away. How scientists and engineers transition new discoveries made at the nanoscale into useful materials and devices, how these so-called 'revolutionary' discoveries are integrated into current technologies, and how they master the ultimate and final challenge of the commercial marketplace, is a grand transition that is currently a national focus. In my talk I will discuss some of our own work which has begun to make the transition into the real world: metal nanoshells, a unique approach to manipulating light and color, and how this new nano-tool can be used in applications that may directly touch people's lives."

Halas graduated from LaSalle University with a degree in chemistry. She earned both her master's and Ph.D. degrees in physics at Bryn Mawr College, then moved to AT&T Bell Laboratories for post-doctoral study. The Halas Nanophotonics Group is a multidisciplinary research team which designs metal nanoshells; applications of her work have been featured in Discover Magazine, Forbes, Scientific American, and Business Week

CHRISTOPHER MONROE, Ph.D., associate professor of physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2001 I. I. Rabi Prize Winner - American Physical Society.

"A quantum computer can store and process quantum mechanical superpositions of numbers, leading to an exponential speedup over conventional computers for certain algorithms. However, the prospects for constructing a quantum computer are highly speculative, owing to the extremely fragile nature of quantum superpositions. A quantum computer is nothing more than a smaller (and more humane) implementation of Schroedinger's famous 'Cat Paradox.' If one is ever built, it will strongly impact both computer science and quantum mechanical foundations. Leading physical candidates for quantum computation involve exotic systems such as individual trapped atoms, where the isolation from the environment is unparalleled. Experiments are reported in this context, where simple quantum logic gates have been demonstrated. The outlook for large-scale quantum computing with individual atoms and alternative technologies will be discussed."

Monroe received his undergraduate degree from MIT, and went on to do graduate work in Physics at the University of Colorado. After an NRC postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) he joined the Ion Storage Group at NIST as a staff physicist. There he co-led a team that demonstrated the first quantum logic gate, and later demonstrated the basic hardware for a four-bit quantum computer. At the University of Michigan he leads an effort to scale up the trapped-atom quantum computer.

J. MICHAEL RAMSEY, Ph.D., corporate research fellow, leader of the Laser Spectroscopy and Chemical Microtechnology Group, Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

"The transport of fluids through nanoscopic conduits has received very little attention although it is fundamental to life. We call the fabrication of such conduits and the active transport of fluid through them nanofluidics. Detailed understanding of nanofluidic transport will likely lead to revolutionary technological capabilities. For example, the design of artificial cellular receptors may result in sensitive and inexpensive sensors for chemical and biological agents or the ability to sequence single molecules of DNA at rates many orders of magnitude faster than presently possible. Understanding of molecular transport in nanoscopic domains requires probing fundamental questions in the fields of fluid dynamics and statistical physics. Although the theories describing one- and two-dimensional fluids was developed many years ago, they have not been tested with experimental fluidic systems, and fundamental assumptions of fluid dynamics have not been investigated on a nanoscale. Interesting phenomena become apparent as channel dimensions are reduced to the nanometer scale. Recent experiments and future possibilities will be discussed."

Ramsey received his B.S. in Chemistry from Bowling Green State University and earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Indiana University. After graduate school he received a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and later became a permanent staff member. He presently directs a group of 26 staff scientists, engineers, and postdoctoral fellows. His research interests include miniature chemical instrumentation, ultrasensitive laser-based detection techniques, resonant multiphoton ionization, nonlinear spectroscopies, diode laser-based chemical instrumentation, and real-time chemical characterization of aerosols. In addition he is a co-founder and Scientific Advisory Board Member of Caliper Technologies, Corp., a company leading the way to commercial Lab-on-a-Chip devices.