Events & Lectures

Foresight Nanotech Institute Events

The 2013 Foresight Technical Conference
Illuminating Atomic Precision

January 11-13, 2013
Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel, Palo Alto, CA USA

Conference Co-Chairs
Larry S. Millstein, President, Foresight Institute
J. Fraser Stoddart, Board of Trustees Professor, Northwestern University

Diamond Sponsor: The Thiel Foundation
Silver Sponsors: Autodesk, Zyvex Labs
Bronze Sponsor: Millen, White, Zelano & Branigan, PC

The 2013 Foresight Technical Conference – Illuminating Atomic Precision – was held on 11-13 January at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Cabana in Palo Alto. The conference was designed to bring together world leading researchers in five major areas of importance to developing atomically precise technologies, blending in-field conversation with cross-disciplinary stimulation. Over 35 invited speakers presented their latest results and perspectives on a wide variety of subjects relating to the development of atomic precision technologies. Their presentations revealed tremendous across the board progress over the past decade toward the processes, materials and devices first hinted at by Richard Feynman and explored in much greater detail by K. Eric Drexler. The conference had a palpable feeling of great excitement—of being just past an inflection point. And, by all accounts of the participants it was a huge success, stimulating not only imaginative extrapolation and some out of the box creatively but also numerous real world collaborations. (See participant’s comments below.)

Pre-conference bios and abstracts are available on the conference website: www.foresight.org/conference. Videos of the presentations will be posted to the conference website as soon as they are edited. (All postings are with the speakers consent only. Some of the presentations contained confidential information and will not be posted.) A summary of conference highlights will be published in the next month or two in Nature Nanotechnology. More information may be available directly from the individual speakers.

Plans are now underway for the next technical conference. Keep an eye out for additional information on the foresight website and in future updates.

Quotations by permission from the evaluation forms filled out by conference participants
“Best conference ever” - Anon
“An excellent blend of fascinating materials some of which I understood and some of which left me eager for a break and some friendly explanation” - Kary Mullis
“Great Conference - wide-ranging, top rate research, excellent interactions” - Art Olson
“A great forum to strike up new research collaborations” - Joe Lyding
“The best [Foresight] conference I’ve attended in over 30 years of attending such conferences”- Bill Goddard III
“Extremely entertaining and worthwhile.” - John Randall
“The lunch discussion was valuable enough to justify [attending].” - Adam M. Glickman”
“Formidable! Intellectual overload in a good way. Best Foresight Conference I’ve attended.” - Marisa Alma McGinnis
“Amazing progress over last decade.” - David Gustavson
“It was amazing to see how far the science has gotten.” - Max Sims
“Historic. Very dense information content. [And] Very enjoyable!” - Anon
“Superlative interdisciplinary group engaged with a sense of group purpose meeting as a jovial, collegial conclave … definitely breeding collaboration to accelerate innovation.”
“Enthralling, broad based but cutting edge inspiring at every level.” - Anon
“Great conference!” - Anon (more than one)

For the full conference schedule, and detailed information on sessions, speakers and talks, see the conference web site

Foresight's previous conference
25th Anniversary Conference @ Google

June 25-26, 2011
Mountain View, California
http://www.foresight.org/reunion/

Thanks to all for a successful summer conference! We're still hearing about some great connections and synergies made at the gathering that will help further transformative nanotech. With the addition of NASA-Ames Singularity University grad students, as well as 20Under20 Thiel Fellows, there was standing room only on Sunday afternoon; we intimately filled the 236-occupant venue room, with overflow chat in the hall 'Alley'. Some quotes that rolled in just hours after the conference was over:

"Great weekend spent with brilliant minds sharing their plans and hopes for nanotech in the future." —Louise Gold, Institute for Optimal Living
"Excellent speakers and a great opportunity to share ideas with like-minded attendees." —Stephen Fowkes, Nanopolymer Systems
"Great conference, and especially a great set of speakers!" —Bruce Smith, Nanorex
"Engaging for me, a good two days. Well worth the time and money." —Robert Chew, Private Investor, Singapore
"One of the best I have attended - informative, interesting, and definitely worth the trip." —Ravi Pandya, MS Seattle, donor since 1990
"Awesome conference. Just about all presentations were top notch. Please keep doing this." —Peter Voss, Smart Action AI
"Awesome conference, great discussions with very interesting people!" —Dr. Randal Koene, Halcyon Molecular
"A very meaty program (with very healthy snacks!)" —John Chisholm, CEO
"Had an awesome time! +++ will visit another conference from this team!" —Paul Bohm, Founder of Mjam GmbH & BBQ
"Inspiring!" —Lerwin Liu, Nanostart and Zyvex Asia
"Best meeting of minds I've ever been a part of." —David Atkins-Maters, Nanomaterials & Nanomedicine Research Lab, UCSD

Want to see the video? We're in the process of putting together more elegant video for the conference, but in the meantime you can see recordings of the free webcast via Ustream (with ads) here:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foresightinstitute

Photos have been posted by Eric Messick here! http://www.syzygy.com/images/2011.06.24_Foresight_25th/images/index.html

Special Thanks again to all the fantastic speakers, supporters, sponsors and also especially volunteers, notably including: Monica Anderson, Chris Rasch, Max Marty, Michael Anissimov, Miron Cuperman, Chris Hibbert, Eric Messick, Peter Norvig and all the Google staff for making a wonderful event.

Library of Foresight Institute Conferences on Nanotechnology, 1989–2013

Library of Foresight Vision Weekends and Senior Associates Gatherings, 1992–2008

Foresight Lectures

February 2013 Online
Christine Peterson on Singularity 1 on 1: Join Us to Push the Future in a Positive Direction
Christine Peterson is interviewed for 47 minutes on nanotechnology, the founding of the Foresight Institute, her work on personal life extension through Health Activator, open source, and the Technological Singularity.

March 2-3, 2013 Long Beach, California
BIL Conference 2013: Minds Set Free
Christine Peterson will speak on "A Whirlwind Tour of Health & Longevity Strategies". (Also a second talk on a fun but non-Foresight topic: "Find Love & a Life Partner--Using Science & Technology".)
BIL Conference 2013: Minds Set Free

Lectures Library 2005-present

Lectures Library 2002-2004

Media Partner Events

The 10th FNANO Conference on Self-Assembled Architectures and Devices
Monday, April 15 – Thursday, April 18, 2013 Snowbird, UT
NOTE: The early registration deadline is 15 March 2013.

The FNANO conference is an annual conclave on foundations of nano science. It maintains the highest scientific standards and provides a rich variety of opportunities for discussion and exchange of information on nanoscale sciences research.

Self-assembly is the central theme of the conference. Topics to be covered by speakers at the conference include experimental and theoretical studies of self-assembled architectures and devices at scales ranging from nano-scale to meso-scale. The subject matter of the conference spans many traditional disciplines including chemistry, biochemistry, physics, computer science, mathematics, and various engineering disciplines.

Organized by John H. Reif (Duke) and Marya Lieberman (Notre Dame) FNANO is among the most interesting and productive conferences on nanotechnology by the academic research community.

If you are interested in nanotechnology and want to spend a week immersed in presentations and discussions of many of the most important advances of the past year in nanosciences, surrounded by the snow covered peaks of one the most beautiful (and challenging) ski resorts in the US - then you ought to attend this conference.

Media Partner Events Library 2011 to the present

Media Partner Events Library May 2005-2010

Media Partner Events Library Feb. 2005

Upcoming Events

April 15-18, Snowbird, Utah, USA
FNANO13
Foundations of Nanoscience: Self-Assembled Architectures and Devices
Topics include experimental and theoretical studies of self-assembled architectures and devices, at scales ranging from nano-scale to meso-scale.

April 23-26, 2013 Bilbao (Spain)
Imagine Nano 2013
Bringing together Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

May 12-16, 2013 Washington, DC USA
Nanotech Conference & Expo 2013
Don't miss this year in Washington, D.C. as we deliver the World's top innovations and the Nation's leading R&D agency programs!

June 21-26,2013 Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
2013 ASME Annual Meeting

Events Library

An archive lists earlier lectures and events, and includes a list of "Issues and Opportunities"—promotions and initiatives of Foresight Institute — from 1997 through 2004.