DOE OSTI · 3026705
33 Unresolved Questions in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Abstract
Significant advances in science and engineering often emerge at the intersections of disciplines. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are inherently interdisciplinary, uniting researchers from chemistry, physics, biology, medicine, materials science, and engineering. This convergence has fostered novel ways of thinking and enabled the development of materials, tools, and technologies that have transformed both basic and applied research, as well as how we address critical societal challenges. In this Nano Focus, we pose and explore 33 questions whose answers could profoundly impact fields such as energy, electronics, the environment, optics, and medicine. These questions highlight the need for deeper foundational understanding, improved tools and techniques, and innovative applications─each with significant societal relevance. Together, they represent a global call-to-action for the scientific community.
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Mirkin, Chad A. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000266347627), Petrosko, Sarah Hurst [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000273193232), Artzi, Natalie [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Brigham and Women's Hospital (Harvard Medical School), Boston, MA (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000222116069), Aydin, Koray [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000232682216), Biaggne, Austin [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)], Brinker, C. Jeffrey [Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000271459324), Bujold, Katherine E. [McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada)] (ORCID:0000000272926617), Cao, Y. Charles [Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)] (ORCID:000000015476221X), Chan, Rachel R. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000170349513), Chen, Chaojian [Nanjing Univ. (China)], Chen, Peng-Cheng [Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China)] (ORCID:0000000204119549), Chen, Xiaodong [Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore)] (ORCID:0000000233121664), Chevalier, Olivier J. G. L. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)], Choi, Chung Hang Jonathan [The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ma Liu Shui, Shatin (Hong Kong)] (ORCID:0000000329357217), Crooks, Richard M. [Univ. of Texas at Austin, TX (United States)], Dravid, Vinayak P. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000260073063), Du, Jingshan S. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000249326699), Ebrahimi, Sasha B. [GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000327525109), Fan, Hongyou [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)], Farha, Omar K. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000299049845), Figg, C. Adrian [Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000335147750), Fink, Tanner D. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000321023220), Forsyth, Connor M. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)], Fuchs, Harald [Univ. of Münster (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000333943147), Geiger, Franz M. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000185694045), Gianneschi, Nathan C. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000199455475), Gibson, Kyle J. [Alma College, Alma, MI (United States)], Ginger, David S. [Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000297595447), Guo, SiShi [South China Univ. of Technology (SCUT), Guangzhou (China)], Hanes, Justin S. [Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)], Hao, Liangliang [Boston Univ., MA (United States)], Huang, Jin [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000228822634), Hunter, Bryan M. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000185599304), Huo, Fengwei [Nanjing Tech Univ. (China)] (ORCID:0000000253184267), Hwang, Jeongmin [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000187993209), Jin, Rongchao [Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000225258345), Kelley, Shana O. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000333605359), Kempa, Thomas J. [Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)] (ORCID:0000000216728325), Kim, Youngeun [Seoul National Univ. (Korea, Republic of)] (ORCID:0000000294046936), Kudruk, Sergej [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)], Kumari, Sneha [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000252457016), Landy, Kaitlin M. [Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)], Lee, Ki-Bum [Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)], Leon, Noel J. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000288651566), Li, Jun [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)], Li, Yuanwei [Stanford Univ., CA (United States)], Li, Zhiwei [Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)] (ORCID:0000000214894506), Liu, Bin [National Univ. of Singapore (Singapore)] (ORCID:0000000209562777), Liu, Guoliang [Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000267780625), Liu, Xiaogang [National Univ. of Singapore (Singapore)], Liz-Marzán, Luis M. [Univ. of Vigo (Spain)] (ORCID:0000000266471353), Lorch, Jochen H. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)], Luo, Taokun [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000158940490), Macfarlane, Robert J. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000194492680), Millstone, Jill E. [Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000294995744), Mrksich, Milan [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:000000024964796X), Murphy, Catherine J. [Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago, IL (United States); Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000170665575), Naik, Rajesh R. [MINED XAI, Dayton, OH (United States)], Nel, Andre E. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000252324686), Oetheimer, Christopher [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)], Hedlund Orbeck, Jenny K. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)], Park, So-Jung [Ewha Womans Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)] (ORCID:0000000263643754), Partridge, Benjamin E. [Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)] (ORCID:0000000323591280), Peppas, Nicholas A. [Univ. of Texas at Austin, TX (United States)] (ORCID:0000000308945626), Personick, Michelle L. [Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000347479429), Raj, Arindam [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000172776770), Ramani, Namrata [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Brigham and Women's Hospital (Harvard Medical School), Boston, MA (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000181592842), Ross, Michael B. [Univ. of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000225110594), Ross, Stacey Barnaby [Quanterix, Billerica, MA (United States)], Sargent, Edward H. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000303966495), Sengupta, Tanushri [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0009000949024007), Schatz, George C. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000158374740), Seferos, Dwight S. [Univ. of Toronto, ON (Canada)] (ORCID:0000000187428058), Seideman, Tamar [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000206433742), Seo, Soyoung Eileen [Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)] (ORCID:0000000315934474), Shen, Bo [City Univ. of Hong Kong, Kowloon (Hong Kong)] (ORCID:0000000180117134), Shim, Wooyoung [Yonsei Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)] (ORCID:0000000276016282), Shin, Donghoon [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:000000025017547X), Simon, Ulrich [RWTH Aachen Univ. (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000261180573), Sinegra, Andrew J. [Merck & Co., Inc., West Point, PA (United States)], Smith, Peter T. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000288923752), Spokoyny, Alexander M. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000256836240), Stang, Peter J. [Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)] (ORCID:0000000223070576), Stegh, Alexander H. [Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States). School of Medicine], Stoddart, J. Fraser [Univ. of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)] (ORCID:0000000331613697), Swearer, Dayne F. [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)], Tan, Weihong [Chinese Academy of Science, Zhejiang (China); Hunan Univ., Changsha (China)], Teplensky, Michelle H. [Boston Univ., MA (United States)] (ORCID:000000034664420X), Thaxton, C. Shad [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)], Walt, David R. [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Brigham and Women's Hospital (Harvard Medical School), Boston, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000255247348), Wang, Mary X. [Convergence Research, West Chester Township, OH (United States)], Wang, Zhe [Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy], Wei, Wei David [Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000231215798), Weiss, Paul S. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000155276248), Winegar, Peter H. [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000309844990), Xia, Younan [Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000324317048), Xie, Yi [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000276479666), Xu, Xiaoyang [New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Newark, NJ (United States)] (ORCID:0000000216343329), Yang, Peidong [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000347991684), Yang, Yiming [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering] (ORCID:0009000850102749). 2025-09-04. 33 Unresolved Questions in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c12854
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