Peidong Yang – UC Berkeley

Peidong Yang is probably one of the youngest nanotechnology researchers today, which would place him in the new generation of nanotech pioneers.  He's worked closely with Charles Lieber throughout the years as one of the principal investigators of nanowire synthesis and assembly.

Based at UC Berkeley, Peidong Yang's Research Group is at the forefront of nanotechnology research on the west coast.  In particular, his group is extremely good at synthesizing nanowires with excellent control over length, diameter, and composition.  They've built a number of homegrown CVD processes that they've used for experiments.  Though not as well published as their east coast counterpart, Lieber, Peidong Yang has almost 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Yang is better known for being one of the first researchers to successfully pattern the growth of nanowires.  By blending a top-down lithographic patterning technique, he grew 'patches' of nanowires with his custom bottom-up CVD process.  These nanowires were made from ZnO, and were the first nanowires to emit a laser beam in the ultraviolet range at room temperature.  Suffice to say that room-temperature nanodevices are not as common as those that require extreme conditions to successfully operate.

Like the Lieber Group, the Yang Group has moved on from synthesis to rational organization of nanowires into integrated devices.  They both work on similar projects—often in collaboration.

If you ever take the time to read about nanoelectronics based on nanowires, you'll probably run into Peidong Yang's name just as often as Charles Lieber these days.  They're a dynamic duo separated by the entire expanse of America, but they both work with energy toward the goal of unified nanowire devices.