Nanotechnology, the science and engineering of ultra small is helping to change our lives. Below is my work and history in the field of nanotechnology. If you are looking for the nanotechnology blog, you can find it here: Dan Esposito’s Nanotechnology Blog.
My venture into nanotechnology development was spurred from debate on rapid human modifications in my university’s philosophy club. Through a series of meetings I wound up working at the Center of High Rate Nanomanufacturing as an Electron Beam Lithography specialist under Siva Subramanian and Ahmed Busnaina.
I was then fortunate enough to get an Undergraduate Research role under Sinan Muftu, working on a Carbon Nanotube Strain gauge. This work was the foundation of my Senior Thesis developing a Carbon Nanotube based temperature sensor. The project was a great success and had a provisional patent filed by Northeastern University.
In 2008, I had the honor of competing in the US team with 3 MIT students at the International Symposium for Nanotechnology’s Micro Manipulator Competition in Singapore. We won!
My later work with David Carnahan at NanoLab Inc was very exciting. My main thrust of work which can not be devulged online due to a NDA was recently picked up by DARPA.
One of the most enjoyable experiences I had was my experimental work creating the first free standing carbon nanofiber tweezer. As a frame of reference for the videos below, the width of one of the nanofibers is rough 1/100th of the diameter of a red blood cell.
Nanotube Tweezer Closing – Dan Esposito
Currently, I work as a contract NEMS developer in my spare time.
Update: I just heard one of the projects I started back at NanoLab may be getting some love from an undisclosed space agency!