Author Archives: Walt

About Walt

I have been involved in various aspects of nanotechnology since the late 1970s. My interest in promoting nano-safety began in 2006 and produced a white paper in 2007 explaining the four pillars of nano-safety. I am a technology futurist and is currently focused on nanoelectronics, single digit nanomaterials, and 3D printing at the nanoscale. My experience includes three startups, two of which I founded, 13 years at SEMATECH, where I was a Senior Fellow of the technical staff when I left, and 12 years at General Electric with nine of them on corporate staff. I have a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, an MBA from James Madison University, and a B.S. in Physics from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

September 30, 2020
3:39 pm
by: Walt

Below nano gets more interesting

Last blog mentioned metallic hydrogen at a very small level.  As the computational power increases, we are able to examine (theoretically at least) the behavior of various materials.  There is a significant amount of effort being directed at the investigation … Continue reading →

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August 31, 2020
2:14 pm
by: Walt

Interesting things

A couple thoughts on Hydrogen.  This might be old news to some, but two Harvard scientists have created metallic hydrogen [Ref. 1] by employing extreme pressures. This material is predicted to be metastable.  This implies that when the pressure is … Continue reading →

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July 31, 2020
12:21 pm
by: Walt

New Developments in the World of Nano

Tools: In previous blogs I have mentioned that to truly work at a small scale, one needs to be able to measure to at least a dimension that is one-tenth the size of what you are measuring.  Ideally, the capabilities … Continue reading →

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June 30, 2020
11:20 am
by: Walt

Updates and Some Nanotechnology Developments

In doing research for an upcoming published paper, I ran across an interesting article.  In September 2019, a research article was published that postulated the worst case situation for a worldwide pandemic, of unknown origins, might have a devastating impact … Continue reading →

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May 31, 2020
2:00 pm
by: Walt

Research Impacts at the End of the Great Shutdown

As the world starts to come out of the Covid–19 shutdown, there are many things that will be required for research organizations to address prior to beginning their research again. Businesses have a similar but different process that needs to … Continue reading →

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April 30, 2020
9:34 am
by: Walt

Scientific Integrity and COVID-19

I’ve written about validating scientific findings previously.  With the current COVID-19 (coronavirus) situation, there have been numerous published claims of various “facts”, which are based on models.  It was only a couple of months ago that the news carried projections … Continue reading →

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March 31, 2020
9:37 am
by: Walt

A Time of Turmoil and a Time of Opportunity

As this month’s blog is being written, the US has a “shelter-in-place” directive that has been extended through the end of April.  There are many reports of possible medical treatments that may mitigate the current Covid-19 virus.  Most of the … Continue reading →

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February 29, 2020
6:14 am
by: Walt

Progress and Concerns

Additional information related to last month’s blog.  Single layer technology advances from the DoE’s Argonne National Laboratory have moved the Molecular Layer Etching to the atomic level. [Ref. 1] Argonne Labs have been employing Atomic Layer Etching (ALE).  Just as … Continue reading →

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January 31, 2020
8:31 am
by: Walt

Is that all there is?

With apologies for using the title of a Peggy Lee song from the 70s, this reference is to nanotechnology.  There are continually more interesting findings as researchers move into smaller and smaller particle sizes.  The question really is what happens … Continue reading →

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December 31, 2019
10:36 am
by: Walt

Another Year of Progress (?)

As always when reflecting over a year that is ending, there is good news and there is bad news.  We’ll start with the good.  A lot of technology is being created.  As mentioned last month, new material properties are being … Continue reading →

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