Dr. George Whitesides
Dr. Carmichael Roberts
Myer Berlow
Ueli Morant
Eric Keller
Dr. Graciela Blanchet
Dr. Mitchell Zakin
Dr. George Whitesides
Chairman and Head of Science Advisory Board
Currently the Woodford L. and Ann A Flowers University Professor at Harvard University, Dr. George Whitesides joined Harvard’s Department of Chemistry in 1982 and served as Department Chairman from 1986 to 1989. Prior to joining Harvard, he was a member of the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1982. His present research interests include materials science, biophysics, surface science, polyvalency, microfluidics, optics, self-assembly, microfabrication, nanotechnology, and cell surface biochemistry.
Dr. Whitesides has held advisory positions on the National Research Council, National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the American Philosophical Society, among other organizations. He has received dozens of honors, including the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in Pure Chemistry (1975), the Arthur C. Cope Award (1995), the DARPA Award for Significant Technical Achievement (1996), the National Medal of Science (1998), the Von Hippel Award (2000), the Dan David Award (2005), the Welch Award (2005), and the Priestley Award (2007).
Dr. Whitesides is a co-founder of companies with a combined market capitalization of over $20 billion. In the early 80s, he co-founded biotechnology company Genzyme, which remains one of the world’s leading biotechnology companies; in 1993 he co-founded GelTex, which was acquired by Genzyme for $1.2 billion; and in 1996, he co-founded Theravance, which went public in 2004 and currently has a $1.1B market capitalization. Professor Whitesides’ more recent ventures include Surface Logix and WMR Biomedical.
George M. Whitesides was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He received an A.B. from Harvard University in 1960 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1964.
Dr. Carmichael Roberts
Vice Chairman
Dr. Carmichael Roberts is a long-time commercial and scientific collaborator of Dr. George Whitesides at Harvard University. In addition to Nano Terra, Dr. Roberts and Dr. Whitesides co-founded Surface Logix, a drug optimization company, Arsenal Medical, a medical device company and Diagnostics For All, a 501c3 nonprofit. Dr. Roberts has served in a board and/or executive capacity for each of these organizations.
Dr. Roberts serves on the advisory boards for MIT’s Deshpande Center for Innovation, Harvard’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, and Dukes’ School of Biomedical Engineering. In 1999, he was named by MIT’s Technology Review Magazine as one of the world’s top 100 young entrepreneurs.
Born in Queens, NY, Dr. Roberts received his B.S. and PhD in organic chemistry from Duke University and was a National Science Foundation Fellow at Harvard University’s Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. He also earned an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Myer Berlow
CEO
Myer Berlow is a sales and marketing executive with 30 years of experience in global markets. Prior to co-founding Nano Terra, Mr. Berlow was President for Global Marketing Solutions, AOL Time Warner, where he oversaw account services, operations, and the number one interactive marketing sales force in the industry.
Mr. Berlow also directed Interactive Marketing sales across all America Online, Inc. brands and services, including America Online, CompuServe, AOL.COM, Digital City, ICQ, Netscape Netcenter, AOL Moviefone, and Spinner.com. Mr. Berlow grew advertising and commerce revenues to a run-rate of $3 billion. Mr. Berlow joined AOL in 1995 as Vice President for National Accounts, with responsibility for the development of programming and business models for Time Warner, Hachette, Disney, ABC, Times Mirror and Viacom. He has 25 years of experience in the advertising industry, working at such agencies as McCann-Erickson; Benton and Bowles; FCB; Beber Silverstein; and Griffin Bacal.
Mr. Berlow began his career in media planning, and went on to TV programming and network TV buying, becoming Media Director of FCB at the age of 29. Mr. Berlow received his degree in Religion and Political Science from Kenyon College.
Ueli Morant
President
Ueli Morant is a sales and marketing executive with 30 years experience in global markets. Prior to co-founding Nano Terra, he was a Senior Vice President of Marketing for the Philips Consumer Electronics Company, where he was responsible for worldwide business development and alliance management. Prior to Philips, Mr. Morant was Vice President Corporate Marketing for the IBM Corporation in Europe under the leadership of Lou Gerstner. He was also a member of the Executive Committee.
Prior to IBM and Philips, Mr. Morant worked in New York as an Executive Vice President for BBDO Advertising and the Ted Bates Company, amongst others, where he held responsibilities for general management, international network development and account management for global companies such as Bayer, Dow Brands, American Cyanamid, Colgate Palmolive and M&M Mars Foods.
Born in Switzerland, Mr. Morant graduated from the Berne School of Economics in 1972 and was a Lieutenant in a Swiss Tank Corps. He became an American Citizen in 1983.
Eric Keller
Chief Operating Officer
Eric Keller is a proven business executive with more than 15 years professional experience in technology start-ups, venture funds and Fortune 100 companies. He is currently Chief Operating Officer for Nano Terra, Inc., which he co-founded. Most recently Keller was head of strategy and business development for T-Ink, Inc., a pioneer in developing applications using conductive inks. Prior to T-Ink, Keller was Senior Vice President of Business Affairs at America Online, Inc., which he joined in 1995; he became one of AOL's chief deal architects, successfully negotiating over $4 billion in advertising agreements, equity investments worth in excess of $30 billion, and numerous joint ventures, strategic alliances and acquisitions. Keller began his career as a venture capital, securities and licensing attorney, representing both venture funds and venture-backed companies at Testa, Hurwitz and Thibeault and later at Piper and Marbury.
Keller received an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Boston College.
Dr. Graciela Blanchet
Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Graciela Blanchet, a pioneer in the field of organic electronics, is Nano Terra's Chief Technology Officer. During her 25-year tenure at DuPont, she made important scientific and development contributions. As a Fellow of DuPont's Central Research Department, she led multiple early-stage discovery programs. Her work on laser ablation of polymers led to business opportunities in digital color proofing, thermal color filters and printed electronics. Her research in the area of carbon nanotube conducting composites gained DuPont the recognition by Scientific American as one of the top 50 leaders shaping the future of technology. Most recently, Dr. Blanchet led a DuPont team working on high resolution printing of electronic circuits. She is an expert in materials for nano- and micro-scale patterning, printing techniques and fabrication methods.
Dr. Blanchet is a member of scientific advisory boards at several institutions, including Cornell University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She holds more than 100 US patents and has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles.
A native of Argentina, Dr. Blanchet received a M.Sc. from the University of Buenos Aires and a PhD in Physics from Brown University. She held a post-doctoral position in Prof. A. Heeger’s group at the University of California at Santa Barbara
Dr. Mitchell Zakin
Executive Vice President, Government Development and Innovation
Dr. Zakin is a visionary chemist and innovator with 25 years of experience in R&D for defense and medical needs. He leads Nano Terra’s Government operations, including the establishment and oversight of Nano Terra’s interdisciplinary Innovation Network.
Prior to joining Nano Terra, Dr. Zakin was a Program Manager at DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), where he was widely credited with reviving the chemistry discipline at the Agency. At DARPA, Dr. Zakin broke through the boundaries of conventional chemistry, creating and managing a $100M+ project portfolio of groundbreaking inventions, built on the core concept of InfoChemistry, the fusion of information technology and material science. This included Chemical Robots (ChemBots), a new class of soft, flexible, mobile objects that can change shape and maneuver through openings smaller than their dimensions to perform various tasks; Fracture Putty, a fully load-bearing material which rapidly restores ambulatory function to patients with severe orthopedic fractures, and which dissolves over time as normal bone regenerates; Programmable Matter, a new functional form of matter that can assemble into complex 3D objects upon external command, and then disassemble for reuse; Chemical Communications, a new class of self-powered modular optical communications systems based solely on chemistry; and Instant Fire Suppression, a radically new approach for extinguishing and controlling fire via manipulation of the flame plasma.
Prior to DARPA, Dr. Zakin established the Life Sciences business area at Physical Sciences, Inc., which focused on sensors, assays, clinical diagnostics, and materials. He began his career at Spectral Sciences, Inc., performing research in chemical detection, spectroscopy, radiation transport, and sonoluminescence. Dr. Zakin has also served as advisor to private industry, including membership on the Scientific Advisory Board of Polymer Technology Corporation (a Bausch & Lomb subsidiary), the world leader in rigid gas permeable contact lenses and lens care systems.
Dr. Zakin received a PhD and AM in Physical Chemistry from Harvard University, and a BS in Chemistry (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi) from the City College of New York. He served as a postdoctoral fellow at Exxon Research and Engineering Company, exploring the properties of nanostructured materials. Dr. Zakin holds 4 U.S. patents, has authored 30 peer-reviewed articles, and is a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Physical Society.