Pietro Perlo, physicist extraordinaire, optics expert, automotive engineer, inventor and canine communicator, still has time to pursue his passion for extreme cycling and enjoying life to the full.

 

Dr Perlo took his Laurea degree in General Physics in Turin, the city that is arguably the automotive centre of the world. For 15 years he was contract professor at the Physics Institute of the University of Turin, teaching applied optics. In the mid 90's, he initiated the first world-wide commercial introduction of diffractive and micro optics into the automotive and motorcycle industries for general lighting, and in infrared systems for intruder alarms.

As director and senior scientist at Centro Ricerche Fiat, Dr Perlo is currently concentrating his interests on the optimal integration of technologies and systems that enable zero emission mobility. Dr Perlo is also the Chairman of the Working Group 'Automotive' of the EU Technology Platform EPoSS on Smart Systems Integration, with an emphasis on clean mobility.

 

Professor Peter A. Singer, based at Toronto University, Canada, wears many hats. He is a Professor of Medicine, holds the Sun Life Financial Chair in Bioethics, and is Director at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network and University of Toronto.

All these apparently diverse interests come seamlessly together in his unswerving passion on how technologies of importance can bring benefit to the developing world.

The wide ranging knowledge and expertise Professor Singer brings to his work comes from studying internal medicine at the University of Toronto, medical ethics at the University of Chicago, public health at Yale University, and management at Harvard Business School.

Apart from many awards, Professor Singer is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges for Global Health Initiative.Peter Singer shares with Ottilia Saxl why he feels so strongly that nanotechnology should be for the benefit of the many rather than the few, and why misplaced arrogance by the developed world in imposing technologies on the less developed world, should be firmly rejected in favour of engaging with, and being guided by, the people who live and work there.

 

Clemens Betzel, President of G24 Innovations, introduces a new and exciting form of ‘green energy’ generation that will help drive down carbon emissions without compromising on modern day life.

Ottilia Saxl talks with David Reinhoudt, recently Director of MESA+ and architect of NanoNed, about how industry shaped his thinking, how he focused MESA+ on nanotechnology as far back as 1998, why recipients of research funding should be accountable, and how money is a critical factor of success in the ‘expensive sport’ of nanotechnology.

Professor Levon Khachigian is the recipient of many awards, the latest being an Australian Museum Eureka Prize in 2007, awarded “for ground-breaking research that has revolutionised our understanding of transcriptional control in blood vessels using exceptionally-innovative small-molecule gene-targeting agents as inhibitors of angiogenesis, inflammation and intimal thickening. This research potentially offers many important new therapeutic solutions addressing key basic and clinical challenges in the area of cardiovascular pathology.”

Ottlia Saxl interviews Sir Harry Kroto, who received the Nobel Prize for chemistry, in 1996, along with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley for the discovery of Carbon C60, an entirely new form of carbon with many intriguing properties.

Professor James Gimzewski was one of the first scientists to image molecules with the scanning tunneling microscope and holds a Guinness World Record for creating the world's smallest calculator. Today his research interests span science and art. Institute of Nanotechnology CEO, Ottilia Saxl, speaks to professor Gimzewski about his mission to achieve the impossible.

Christoph Gerber is a pioneer in scanning probe microscopy. He made major contributions to the invention of both the Scanning Probe Microscope and the Atomic Force Microscope and is a co-inventor of biochemical sensors based on AFM technology.

Professor Gerber spoke to Ottilia Saxl about microscopy, chemical sensors, the future for smart materials and improving his golf swing.

All revolutions have their heroes, and the nanotechnology revolution is no exception. One nano hero is Dr James Murday, an early anticipator of the importance of nanotechnology as a key technology of the future. Dr Murday talks to NANO magazine about what influences shaped and inspired him, and how he and other colleagues successfully brought nanoscale science to the forefront of US scientific research and development policy.

Dr Ferrari speaks to Elaine Mulcahy about his past achievements, current projects and a mission to defeat cancer