Dr. Mihail C. Roco

Dr. Roco is the founding chair of the National Science and Technology Council's subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET), and is the Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology at the National Science Foundation. He also coordinated the programs on academic liaison with industry (GOALI). Prior to joining National Science Foundation, he was Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky (1981-1995), and held visiting professorships at the California Institute of Technology (1988-89), Johns Hopkins University (1993-1995), Tohoku University (1989), and Delft University of Technology (1997-98).

Dr. Roco is credited with thirteen inventions, contributed over two hundred articles and sixteen books including "Particulate Two-phase Flow" (Butterworth, 1993), "Nanostructure Science and Technology" (1999), “Societal Implications of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology” (2001 and 2006), and more recently “Managing Nano-Bio-Info-Cognition Innovations” (2007) and “Mapping Nanotechnology Knowledge and Innovation: Global and Longitudinal Patent and Literature Analysis” (2008). Dr. Roco was a researcher in multiphase systems, visualization techniques, computer simulations, nanoparticles and nanosystems. He initiated the first Federal Government program with focused on nanoscale science and engineering (on Synthesis and Processing of Nanoparticles) at NSF in 1991. He formally proposed NNI in a presentation at White House/OSTP, Committee on Technology, on March 11, 1999. He is a key architect of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, and coordinated the preparation of the U.S. National Science and Technology Council reports on "Nanotechnology Research Directions" (NSTC, 1999) and "National Nanotechnology Initiative" (NSTC, 2000).

Dr. Roco is a Correspondent Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He has been co-founder and Chair of the AIChE Particle Technology Forum and of the International Multiphase Flow Council. He has served as editor for Journal of Fluids Engineering and Journal of Measurement Science and Technology, and is Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research. He has been member in the several research boards in Americas, Europe and Asia including the S&T Council of the International Risk Governance Council in Geneva.

He was honored as recipient of the Carl Duisberg Award in Germany, “Burgers Professorship Award” in Netherlands and the “University Research Professorship” award in U.S. He was named the “Engineer of the Year” in 1999 and again in 2004 by the U.S. National Society of Professional Engineers and NSF. In 2002, he received the “Best of Small Tech Awards” (“Leader of the American nanotech revolution”). Forbes magazine recognized him in 2003 as the first among “Nanotechnology’s Power Brokers” and Scientific American named him one of 2004’s top 50 Technology Leaders. Dr. Roco is the 2005 recipient of the AIChE Forum Award "for leadership and service to the national science and engineering community through initiating and bringing to fruition the National Nanotechnology Initiative". He received the National Materials Advancement Award from the Federation of Materials Societies at the National Press Club in 2007 for NNI leadership and “as the individual most responsible for support and investment in nanotechnology by government, industry, and academia worldwide”.