Name Robert Freitas | ||
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Books Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, Nanomedicine, Nanomedicine, Volume IIA: Biocompatibility | ||
Mechanosynthesis ralph merkle robert freitas
Robert A. Freitas Jr. (born 1952) is a Senior Research Fellow at the nonprofit foundation Institute for Molecular Manufacturing in Palo Alto, California, a faculty member at Singularity University, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.
Contents
- Mechanosynthesis ralph merkle robert freitas
- Future in Nanotechnology and Virtual Reality
- Career
- References
Future in Nanotechnology and Virtual Reality
Career
Freitas holds a 1974 Bachelor's degree majoring in both physics and psychology from Harvey Mudd College, and a 1978 Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Santa Clara University School of Law. He has written more than 150 technical papers, book chapters, or popular articles on a diverse set of scientific, engineering, and legal topics. He co-edited the 1980 NASA feasibility analysis of self-replicating space factories and later published the first technical design study of a hypothetical medical nanorobot, the respirocyte, in a refereed medical journal.
Freitas began writing his Nanomedicine book series in 1994. Volume I, published in October 1999 by Landes Bioscience while Freitas was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, was the first book-length technical discussion of the potential medical applications of hypothetical molecular nanotechnology, medical nanorobotics, and nanomedicine. Volume IIA was published in October 2003 by Landes Bioscience while Freitas was serving as a research scientist at Zyvex Corp., a nanotechnology company headquartered in Richardson, Texas, during 2000-2004.
In 2004, Freitas and Ralph Merkle coauthored and published Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, a comprehensive survey of the field of physical and hypothetical self-replicating machines. In 2006, Freitas and Merkle co-founded the Nanofactory Collaboration, a research program to develop a working diamondoid nanofactory.
In 2009, Freitas was awarded the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology for his work in mechanosynthesis, nanomedicine, and self-replicating machines.
In 2010, Freitas was issued the first U.S. patent on diamond mechanosynthesis. As of 2017, Freitas holds 10 issued patents in the fields of mechanosynthesis and medical nanorobotics.
Freitas created the sentience quotient (SQ) concept in 1977-78 as a way to describe the information processing rate in living organisms or computers. In the 1980s he performed several telescopic SETI searches for extraterrestrial artifacts and published extensively on xenology.