Robert Freitas

Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Manufacturing

Robert A. Freitas Jr., J.D., published the first detailed technical design study of a medical nanorobot ever published in a peer-reviewed mainstream biomedical journal and is the author of Nanomedicine, the first book-length technical discussion of the medical applications of nanotechnology and medical nanorobotics. Volume I was published in October 1999 by Landes Bioscience while he was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) in Palo Alto, California. He published Volume IIA in October 2003 with Landes Bioscience while serving as a Research Scientist at Zyvex Corp., a nanotechnology company headquartered in Richardson, Texas during 2000-2004.

Dr. Freitas is the author of Nanomedicine, a book series exploring the potential medical applications of molecular nanotechnology and medical nanorobotics. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, and previously worked as a Research scientist at Zyvex Corporation. He is now completing Nanomedicine Volumes IIB and III and is also consulting on diamond mechanosynthesis, molecular assembler design, and nanofactory implementation as Senior Research Fellow at IMM.

In 2006, he received the Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award, annually bestowed upon scientists or public figures who has proactively worked to mitigate the dangers associated with advanced technologies. He was responsible together with Michael Vassar for the Lifeboat Foundation Nanoshield proposal designed primarily to protect against self-replicating weapons.

He believes the advent of medical nanorobotics in coming decades will create a revolution in medical treatment, giving doctors the ability to rapidly eliminate microbial infections and cancer, repair and recondition the human vascular tree, and replace chromosomes in individual cells thus reversing the effects of genetic disease and aging. His presentation at the 6th Alcor Conference was entitled "Nanomedicine and Medical Nanorobots: The Path Forward." Most recently, he presented together with Ralph Merkle on their upcoming paper on diamondoid mechanosynthesis at the 2007 Foresight Institute's Vision Weekend Unconference.

clip from "Nanomedicine and Medical Nanorobots: The Path Forward."

transcripts

2007 Foresight Vision Weekend, Diamond Mechanosynthesis
6th Alcor Conference, Nanomedicine and Medical Nanorobots: The Path Forward