Abstract:
Sometime after his opening speech but before the close of the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s 2002 regional symposium in Houston, Richard Smalley managed to sequester one of the federal government’s highest-ranking officials for a tête-à-tête in his campus office. Smalley’s goal: to get a read on Phil Bond, an under secretary for the Department of Commerce and its quarterback for commercializing technology. Bond recently had begun promoting nanotechnology publicly as a means for expanding the national economy.