James K. Gimzewski "Building a Brain"

The 15th Anniversary Symposium of Science and Technology of Advanced Materials

"A break point in building research career - Messages to young scientists -"

date: July 3rd, 2014

venue: Sanjo Conference Hall, The University of Tokyo

host: National Institute for Materials Science

detail: http://www.nims.go.jp/publicity/events/hdfqf1000002drvj.html

Prof. James Gimzewski, a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, talks about his break point in building his research career at the 15th anniversary symposium of Science and Technology of Advanced Materials (http://iopscience.iop.org/1468-6996/page/15th-anniversary) on July 3, 2014 at the University of Tokyo.

Prof. Gimzewski received his Ph.D. (1977) degrees from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. Prior to joining UCLA, he was a group leader at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, where he worked on the nanoscale science and technology for more than 18 years. He pioneered research on mechanical and electrical contacts with single atoms and molecules using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and was one of the first researchers to image molecules with STM. His accomplishments include the first STM-based fabrication of molecular suprastructures at room temperature using mechanical forces to push molecules across surfaces, the discovery of single-molecule rotors, and the development of new micromechanical sensors based on nanotechnology, which explore ultimate limits of sensitivity and measurement. This approach was later used to convert biochemical recognition into nanomechanics.

His current interests are in the nanomechanics of cells, bacteria, exosomes and actin binding and RNA profiling where he collaborates with the UCLA MBI, Medical and Dental Schools. His work with MANA (http://www.nims.go.jp/mana/member/principal_investigator/james_k_gimzewski.html) is devoted to the fabrication and operation of a system that uses synaptic atom switches in a nanoarchitectonic network to generate self-organized criticality for the creation of reservoir computation and physical intelligence.