K. Eric Drexler

Quick Facts

Full Name	K. Eric Drexler
Occupation	Engineer
Date Of Birth	Apr 25, 1955(1955-04-25)
Age	69
Birthplace	Alameda
Country	United States
Birth City	California
Horoscope	Aries

K. Eric Drexler Biography

K. Eric Drexler is one of the most popular and richest Engineer who was born on April 25, 1955 in Alameda, California, United States. Kim Eric Drexler (born April 25 1955) is an American engineer who is best known for his important studies into the possibilities in molecular-nanotechnology (MNT) in the 1970s and the 1980s. His doctoral dissertation in 1991 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was revised and then published in the form of a volume Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery Manufacturing and Computation (1992), which was awarded the Association of American Publishers award for the Best Computer Science Book of 1992.

Drexler has 3 degrees at MIT. He earned his B.S. with a major in Interdisciplinary Science in the year 1977, and his M.S. at the time of 1979 was in Aerospace/Astrospace engineering with an MS thesis entitled “Design of a High Performance Solar Sail System.” He was awarded an Ph.D. in 1979 through his studies at the MIT Media Lab (formally, the Media Arts and Sciences Section, School of Architecture and Planning) following the decision of departments of electrical engineering and computer science was unable to give Drexler’s proposal for research.

Drexler’s work on nanotechnology was criticized as naive by Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley in a 2001 Scientific American article. Smalley first argued that “fat fingers” made MNT impossible. He later argued that nanomachines would have to resemble chemical enzymes more than Drexler’s assemblers and could only work in water. Drexler maintained that both were straw man arguments, and in the case of enzymes, wrote that “Prof. Klibanov wrote in 1994, ‘ … using an enzyme in organic solvents eliminates several obstacles … ‘” Drexler had difficulty in getting Smalley to respond, but in December 2003, Chemical and Engineering news carried a four-part debate. Ray Kurzweil disputes Smalley’s arguments.

Drexler was married to Christine Peterson for 21 years. The marriage ended in 2002.

“Nanotechnology,” as it is commonly referred to “nano-technology” had been coined by Tokyo Science University professor Norio Taniguchi back in 1974 to refer to the exact manufacturing of materials with nanometer-level tolerances. Drexler didn’t realize that he had used the same phrase in his book from 1986 Engines of Creation: The New Era of Nanotechnology to refer to what would later be known as molecular nanotechnology (MNT). In the book, he suggested the concept of tiny “assembler” which would be capable of creating a duplicate of itself as well as other things of an arbitrary level of complexity. He also introduced his term “grey goo” to describe what could happen if self- replicating nanotechnology that was self-replicating went beyond control. He has since tried to address his concerns regarding self-replicators that are out of control, and to make the argument that molecular production doesn’t require these devices.

K. Eric Drexler Net Worth

K. Eric Drexler is one of the richest Engineer from United States. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, K. Eric Drexler 's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

In the latter part of the 70s Drexler was beginning to explore concepts about molecular nanotechnology (MNT). He was inspired by the 1979 conference when he was introduced to Richard Feynman’s controversial 1959 speech”There’s Plenty of Room in the Bottom. Then, in 1981 Drexler created a landmark research paper, which was released by PNAS, “Molecular engineering: An approach to the development of general capabilities for molecular manipulation”. This article continued to be cited over 620 times over the next 35 years.

K. Eric Drexler was highly influenced by ideas about limitations to Growth in the early 1970s. When he was a freshman in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Drexler sought out someone who was researching extraterrestrial resources. He met Gerard K. O’Neill of Princeton University, a physicist known for his research on storage rings used in particle accelerators as well as his groundbreaking research into the theories for space colonization. Drexler was a participant in NASA summer research on space colonies between the years 1975 as well as 1976. He created metal films a tiny tens of nanometers thick on a support made of wax to show the possibilities of solar sails with high- performance. Drexler was involved in space politics, assisting to help the L5 Society defeat the Moon Treaty in the year 1980. Apart from working during the summers for O’Neill, constructing prototypes of mass-drivers, Drexler delivered papers at the initial three Space Manufacturing conferences at Princeton. In 1977 and 1979, he coauthored papers by Keith Henson, and patents were granted for both such as vapor phase fabrication as well as space radiators.

His Ph.D. work was the first doctoral degree on the topic of molecular nanotechnology and his thesis, “Molecular Machinery and Manufacturing with Applications to Computation,” was published (with minor editing) as Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing and Computation (1992), which received the Association of American Publishers award for Best Computer Science Book of 1992.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

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Who is K. Eric Drexler Dating?

According to our records, K. Eric Drexler is possibily single & has not been previously engaged. As of December 1, 2023, K. Eric Drexler’s is not dating anyone.

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Facts & Trivia

K. Ranked on the list of most popular Engineer. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in United States. K. Eric Drexler celebrates birthday on April 25 of every year.

What did Eric Drexler do for nanotechnology?

Eric Drexler is a visionary scientist and engineer thought of as one of the “Founding fathers of nanotechnology”, the science of engineering on a molecular level. He is most known for being the driving force behind the concept of molecular nanotechnology (MNT) and its potential benefits for humans.

Is Eric Drexler The father of nanotechnology?

Often described as “the founding father of nanotechnology” , Eric Drexler introduced the concept in his seminal 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which established fundamental principles of molecular engineering and outlined development paths to advanced nanotechnologies.

Where does Eric Drexler work?

He is currently a research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute where his focus is on superintelligence.

Why did Eric Drexler use the term molecular nanotechnology in his work?

Drexler’s vision of nanotechnology, now called molecular nanotechnology, is based on the concept of the molecular assembler, a molecular machine which would manufacture molecules and molecular devices atom-by-atom.

Which company is leading in nanotechnology?

CompanyMarket Cap2017 Revenue
BASF (BASFY -1.87%)| $98.3 billion| $76.3 billion
PPG Industries (PPG -1.37%)| $29.3 billion| $14.8 billion
Chemours Co. (CC -1.82%)| $9.1 billion| $5.9 billion
Intel Corporation (INTC -2.43%)| $214.2 billion| $62.7 billion