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Guest Lecture - Gabriel Montano

Jennifer Piarowski

Nanotechnology is something that I knew (know) little to nothing about. Gabriel Montano is an expert at it. He presented to the class what nanotechnology means and what it is applied to in modern discovery and technology. He explained that nanotechnology is just technology on the scale of 10^-9 and that it is physics, chemistry, engineering, and biology all rolled into one. As a career, Gabriel "assembles diverse nano-scale materials across length scales to design and achieve new properties and functionality." In his lab, they synthesize and test these new materials.

Gabriel mentioned that his main focus in nanotechnology was energy-creation driven. I really enjoyed the connection of nanotechnology to the question he asked us about how we would design an artificial leaf. We had a very long discussion about the AFM and how it works. His ultimate goal is to make bio-responsive materials that resond and react to the environment. He believes research into these materials will aid in cancer cell destruction and energy creation. The idea of creating energy synthetically reminds me of the quest for perpetual motion.

Questions:

1. What do you consider your most considerable achievement?
2. What was the best project you have ever worked on?
3. Have you ever had a colleague that made your research techniques and thought process better? How do you think they contributed to that?

Future Research:

1. Cell reparation technology, to aid in wound reparation
2. Some sort of super suit for the human that can be used as an underlayer to adjust and protect from heat and cold.
3. Use the artificial "leaf" as source of energy for cars, manufacturing, etc.