Robert A. Freitas Jr, Senior Research Fellow

Robert A. Freitas Jr. is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) in Palo Alto, California, and was a Research Scientist at Zyvex Corp. (Richardson, Texas), the first molecular nanotechnology company, during 2000-2004. He received B.S. degrees in Physics and Psychology from Harvey Mudd College in 1974 and a J.D. from University of Santa Clara in 1979. Freitas co-edited the 1980 NASA feasibility analysis of self-replicating space factories and in 1996 authored the first detailed technical design study of a medical nanorobot ever published in a peer-reviewed mainstream biomedical journal. More recently, Freitas is the author of Nanomedicine, the first book-length technical discussion of the potential medical applications of molecular nanotechnology and medical nanorobotics; the first two volumes of this 4-volume series were published in 1999 and 2003 by Landes Bioscience. His research interests include: nanomedicine, medical nanorobotics design, molecular machine systems, diamond mechanosynthesis or DMS (theory and experimental pathways), molecular assemblers and nanofactories, and self-replication in machine and factory systems. He has published 33 refereed journal publications, 4 books, 61 other publications and several contributed book chapters, filed the first patent on diamond mechanosynthesis, and co-authored Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines (2004), another first-of-its-kind technical treatise.