Tihamer Toth-Fejel

Tihamer Toth-Fejel has been interested in nanotechnology since 1978, when heard about it from another grad student, Eric Drexler. At the time, he believed Drexler’s timetable to be overly optimistic, but now he knows better. Toth-Fejel’s 1996 article “LEGOs to the Stars” anticipated much of the modular robotics work that appeared after 2000. He has been involved in two projects for the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, a study of a Self-Replicating System using Kinematic Cellular Automata, and (with Chris Phoenix) a study of Large-Product General-Purpose Design and Manufacturing Using Nanoscale Modules.

Toth-Fejel is currently a senior research engineer at GDAIS, where he investigates quantum dots and other advanced technology applications. He is especially interested in the four main approaches on the Foresight/Battelle Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems. He is actively working finding applications for the patterned ALE approach with Zyvex on the DARPA Tip-Based Nanofabrication; his pending patent involves using the DNA origami approach for templating silsesquioxane electronic nanostructures. He expects to eventually get involved in the other two approaches (bis-peptide synthesis and diamondoid mechanosynthesis). He is former chair of the Nanomanufacturing Technical Group of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and is on the Advisory Board of The Nanoethics Group.