Guest Lecture - Gabriel Montano
Pablo Sisneros
On April 2 a man named Gabriel A. Montano came into class and spoke to us about nanotechnology and what he does for a living. He first started by giving us a brief introduction on nanotechnology, followed by his personal experience and how his experiences led him to research. He discussed that because of the media the word nano has a bad stigma. Because nano is so much smaller than micro it is not as safe and some principals will sometimes change at the nano level. He discussed the different tools that he works with, how they work, and what exactly they do. He talked about working with others from different fields and how language is key in any situation. He talked about how we want to go beyond the nano-scale to the meso-scale. But I think the greatest message that he left us is to think functionally and not structurally.
Three questions I did not ask
- You had mentioned that you spend more of your time righting grants. Do you every wish that someone else had that responsibility so you can work in the lab?
- What was the hardest thing for you to accomplish in your field or in another field through your journey to where you are today?
- What was your favorite project that you conducted and do you consider that project to be your greatest achievement?
Three Future Directions:
- I would try to use this technology in order to try and synthesize important cells in the body like erythrocytes and leucocytes.
- I would attempt to perfect the artificial leaf in order to create an energy source that is sustainable and could be adapted to be used in almost all energy powered devices.
- I would try to make and adapt the tools used in order to be able to work and manipulate smaller objects in attempt to create things in the meso-scale.
