James Heath, Ph.D.

Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor of Chemistry, California Institute of Technology

Professor of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology, UCLA

Director, NanoSystems Biology Cancer Center, California Institute of Technology

Ph.D., Physics and Chemistry , Rice University (1988)

B.Sc., Physics and Chemistry, Baylor University (1984)

Dr. Heath is a renowned nanotechnology expert. As a graduate student at Rice University, he was the principal student involved in the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of C60 (a.k.a. Buckminsterfullerene) and the fullerene family. His work focuses on the physics and chemistry of nanoscale structures, with an eye towards both biological and electronic applications. He is the Director of the Nanosystems Biology Cancer Center at Caltech, which focuses on the development of nanotechnologies that could aid with the early detection and treatment of cancer. In 2001, his work on molecular circuitry was highlighted in the journal Science as the ‘Breakthrough of the Year’, and he was also named as a Scientific American Top 50 Scientist in 2002. He has served as the Director of the California Nanosystems Institute, and is a co-founder of Nanosys, Inc., an industry-leading nanotechnology company. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and has been a recipient of the Spiers Medal from the Royal Society, the Arthur K. Doolittle Award, a Public Service Commendation from Governor Gray Davis, the Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences, the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, and the Jules Springer Prize for Applied Physics.

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