The Conferring of Honorary Degrees
Chad A. Mirkin

Citation Presented by Cindy Samet
Associate Professor of Chemistry

As a Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Institute for Nanotechnology and Center for Nanofabrication at Northwestern University, you are both leader and pioneer in the still emerging field of nanotechnology. You have been described as "one of the most imaginative and productive materials scientists in the nation" - and you have reached this point quickly, as you are the youngest chaired professor in the history of Northwestern University.

John Marburger, director of the White House office of Science and Technology Policy, when asked to define nanotechnology, stated that "Nanotechnology refers implicitly to a set of capabilities at the atomic scale that grew steadily throughout the last half of this century into the basis for a true technology revolution in our society - perhaps the next Industrial Revolution." This monumental claim is quite profound.

Most people agree that the term nanotechnology was first coined in 1959 at a lecture given at Caltech by Professor Richard Feynmann, renowned physicist and author of the popular book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynmann." During the lecture, Feynmann asked the question "Why can we not write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica on the head of a pin?" Before I tell you Chad Mirkins's answer to this question, let me first orient you to the nanoworld.

Nano is the Greek word for "dwarf." A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. How small is that? A human hair is one hundred thousand nanometers wide. That means (for those of you who revel in the SAT analogy questions) a nanometer is to a hair as a hair is to a giant Sequoia. A nanometer is also precisely the size for a windfall of research and change, as evidenced by the fact that a quick Google search of the word nanotechnology yields about two million results. But let me digress for a moment and tell you about something that does not exist on the nanoscale - Chad Mirkin's CV! Chad, your academic resume is about an eighth of an inch thick (when pinched very tightly between thumb and forefinger) - that's five million nanometers. Within its thirty pages are listed 219 invited lectures, 182 academic publications, 27 honors and awards, 20 patents, and one great undergraduate degree. But lest I make you sound like a mere list of accomplishments, let me reveal how your research is changing the way the world works.

In 2001, you indeed answered Richard Feynmann's question when you launched a company to commercialize one of the most innovative results of your research efforts - the world's smallest pen! And what for ? To draw the world's finest electonic circuits, and oh, yeah, to write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica on the head of a pin. Surely you are joking, Mr. Mirkin. Well, not really, but Chad's tiny pen did develop out of a laboratory nuisance. Let me explain. One of the most important tools for nanotechnology is the atomic force microsope, AFM for short. An AFM creates pictures of small objects by running a fine ceramic tip over the surface. As the tip moves up and down, its path is measured and mapped by a laser. Yet, in the lab, extremely small and disruptive beads of sticky moisture often accumulate around the AFM tip, or stylus. Chad, you creatively developed from this nuisance a lithographic tool that can deposit lines on circuit boards that are only as thick as a few molecules - about ten nanometers wide. The sticky properties of all substances at the nanoscale allow the pen to be used to attach any material to any other. It can be used, for example, to make chips by depositing molecules onto silicon. Chad, you shrank the computer!

Your other startup company, Nanosphere, is exploiting the different ways in which materials behave at the nanolevel. When you discovered that gold, at the nanoscale, absorbs and scatters different shades of light, you developed a new technique for medical diagnostics. By wrapping a gold particle with DNA fragments that match the complementary DNA fragments of pathogens, you made it possible to take small samples of skin or blood and screen patients for every known viral and bacterial disease known with unprecedented accuracy. It is not a stretch to say that within a few years from now, these instruments will be in doctor's offices, providing results to patients within minutes.

Chad, your work promises to revolutionize manufacturing processes and products all over the world and in almost any industry, including medicine, plastics, energy, electronics, and aerospace. Nanotechnology is no longer science fiction, but a real story of a true revolution. And you have written much of it - with a very unique pen.

Mr. President, I am honored to present to you Dr. Chad. A. Mirkin for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Arts and Sciences.

Conferring of the degree by William G. Durden
President

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