Eric Drexler, a pioneer in the field of molecular nanotechnology, will deliver a public talk at 3 p.m. Nov. 22 at Oregon State University, in an event sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry.

Researchers at OSU and the University of Oregon lead the National Science Foundation-supported center, which also involves collaborative research at Washington University at St Louis, Rutgers University, the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Drexler's talk, "From Macromolecular Engineering to Atomically Precise Manufacturing," will be held in the Construction and Engineering Hall of the LaSells Stewart Center, 875 SW 26th St., Corvallis. Admission is free for the two-hour event.

In his lectures, Drexler covers the implementation and applications of advanced nanotechnologies and describes how they may solve large-scale problems such as global warming.

Often called a father of nanotechnology, Drexler published a groundbreaking paper in 1981 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in which he established fundamental principles of molecular engineering and outlined development paths to advanced nanotechnologies.

Drexler currently is an academic visitor at Oxford University. He holds a doctorate in molecular nanotechnology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

- by Jim Barlow, UO Office of Strategic Communications