What is Nanotechnology? Learn from Professor of Nanoscience Lars Samuelson

Learn about science and entrepreneurship from Lars Samuelson, Professor of Nanotechnology. Lars is co-founder of the companies QuNano, GLO, Sol Voltaics and Hexagem. Interviewed by Daniel Swärd. Lars Samuelson obtained his Ph.D. in Solid State Physics at Lund University in 1977 working in the area of optical properties of deep levels. After a post-doc at IBM Research Laboratories in San José, California, where he did research on electro-optical devices and band-structure calculations, he returned to Lund in 1979. At this stage he set up the first MOCVD-laboratory in northern Europe, using this to study defects in semiconductor alloys. In 1981 he was promoted to Associate Professor at Lund University and in 1986 he became Professor in Semiconductor Physics at Chalmers/Göteborg University. He returned to the Physics Department of Lund University in 1988 to take up the Professorship in Semiconductor Electronics. He is the Founder of the Nanometer Structure Consortium, started in 1988 and today a primary center for Nanoscience in Sweden. In 2005, his research team was selected as one of the top-ten research environments in basic science in Sweden, with a research program called "Nanowires for Fundamental Materials Science and Quantum Physics and for Applications in Electronics, Photonics and in Life-Sciences". Together with Stephanie Reimann, he was the leader the Linnaeus Center "Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering". In January 1st, 2010, he became the leader of a major national Strategic Research Area (SFO) effort in the area of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, with the title nmC@LU (the Nanometer Structure Consortium at Lund University). Today he is the Vice-Director of this center, which was recently re-named as NanoLund, engaging about 250 scientists active in the three faculties: the Engineering Faculty, the Natural Science Faculty, and the Medical Faculty. In 2001/2002 he took the initiative to create a new university degree program in "Engineering Nanoscience" at LTH/LU, which started in the fall 2003. This is, for Sweden, a unique 5-year education program, merging basic mathematics and physics with materials science, devices and life-sciences, leading to focused Master-level studies in one of the areas: Nanobiosciences, Nanomaterials, Nanoelectronics/photonics or Nanophysics. Lars Samuelson is internationally recognized for his research on low-dimensional structures and the physics and applications made possible by these structures. In the 1990s this primarily involved: studies of self-assembly of quantum dots and studies of physical phenomena via single-quantum-dot spectroscopy, and the realization of quantum devices by manipulation of pre-fabricated nanostructures. In recent years his research has been directed towards new ways for the formation of ideal one-dimensional semiconductor nanowires through self-assembly, their physical properties, and applications of semiconductor nanowires in electronics, photonics and the life-sciences. Lars Samuelson is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of four start-up companies engaged in technology development and commercialization of the nanowire technology, in QuNano AB, GLO AB, Sol Voltaics AB and Hexagem AB, all active in the Ideon Science Park in Lund. He is Fellow of the Institute of Physics, FinstP, in the United Kingdom, Fellow of the American Physical Society (Materials Physics), Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Physics class) and Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. In 2008 he was appointed “Einstein Professor” by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2013 he was awarded the IUVSTA Prize for Science for the Triennium 2010-2013 and in 2014, the Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Nanoscience. Interviewed by Daniel Swärd in the non-profit project Inspirational People from DANIEL SWORD. www.sword.se #nanotechnology #nanotech #professor #larssamuelsson #lunduniversity #science Thanks to Gunnel & Kjell Swärd for the help, advice and support that makes the non-profit film project Inspiring People possible. The project will inspire and motivate the next generation to set goals and dreams about what they can become and do in life.