Molecular Manufacturing Enterprises Incorporated
(MMEI)
What is MMEI?
Molecular Manufacturing Enterprises, Incorporated (MMEI) was founded
to help accelerate advancements in the field of molecular nanotechnology.
Molecular nanotechnology involves manipulating structures with atomic
precision. By working at a molecular level in a directed fashion,
tremendous advantages are possible over any manufacturing methods
currently available. A taste of these advantages is provided in
the book Unbounding the Future - The Nanotechnology Revolution,
written by Eric Drexler and
Chris Peterson with Gayle Pergamit.
The scientific merit behind this work has been thoroughly documented
in a broad spectrum of scientific literature, including the excellent
summary provided in Eric Drexler's book
Nanosystems:
Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation.
Who is involved with MMEI?
MMEI was founded by three people with strong scientific and financial
backgrounds. In addition, MMEI uses several advisors with outstanding
backgrounds in a variety of areas, both technical and non-technical.
Their current positions and email addresses are:
The advisors include Nobel-Prize winner Roald Hoffmann (chemist),
Ralph Merkle (computer scientist),
and a broad range of business,
legal, and financial experts. Also, MMEI has a good working relationship
with the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing
(IMM) and the
Foresight Institute (FI).
What are MMEI's goals?
The primary goal of MMEI is to advance the state of the art of molecular
nanotechnology. We do this by providing seed capital, advice, contacts,
and other support services to researchers and business people developing
key advances towards this overall goal. A secondary goal is to obtain
enough of a return on our investments to sustain and expand our efforts
towards fulfilling our primary goal. Most experts in the field believe
that progress towards full-fledged molecular nanotechnology can be made
in a series of steps, each one of which will have enough return on the
investment to allow funding of the next step.
How does MMEI pursue its goals?
MMEI has the resources to provide modest amounts of financial assistance
to several high-risk/high-leverage efforts to advance the state of the
art of molecular nanotechnology. In addition, MMEI can provide technical
and non-technical advice to help make each venture more likely to succeed.
MMEI also serves as a contact point for people working towards advancing the
field of molecular nanotechnology.
How does MMEI differ from other organizations?
MMEI is a seed capital firm, as opposed to a venture capital firm.
Typically, a venture capital firm gets involved when a start-up
enterprise has a working prototype of something that it wishes to develop to
full-scale manufacturing and marketing. A seed capital firm gets involved
at an earlier stage. For example, a seed capital firm may help an individual
or small group to develop a laboratory-bench model into a working prototype
that might then, in turn, interest a venture capital firm. Usually, the
latter step requires more funding, but incurs less risk. The former step
can often be accomplished with relatively little capital, but is often too
risky or too long-term to interest a venture capital firm. This is the niche
that a seed capital firm, such as MMEI, fills.
As mentioned earlier, MMEI has a good working relationship with
the Foresight Institute (FI)
and with the Institute for Molecular
Manufacturing (IMM). All three organizations have the common goal
of advancing molecular nanotechnology for the benefit of all.
However, each organization focuses on different aspects of achieving
this goal. FI and
IMM are
non-profit organizations. FI
is dedicated to
educating the public and policy makers about the advantages and
consequences of molecular nanotechnology.
IMM focuses on providing
research funding, with an emphasis on pure research. MMEI also
provides research funding. Our emphasis, however, is on applied
research, and we are a privately-held corporation. We also supply
a broad range of advice and contacts, where needed, to small start-up
ventures in this field.
What type of proposal is MMEI
looking for?
MMEI is looking for sound proposals for work that will directly advance us
towards eventual control of matter with atomic precision. Proposals are
accepted from corporations (for-profit or non-profit), individuals, groups of
individuals, and academic institutions. To compensate for the high-risk nature
of our investments, we strive to invest across a broad array of enabling
technologies. If capital requirements are too large for MMEI to fund alone, we
may be able to assist in finding additional funding. In addition, we encourage
projects that can more appropriately be funded solely by alternative sources to
pursue those other sources, leaving our limited resources to be focused on
those projects without any such alternatives.
How does MMEI judge a proposal?
We refer to our technical advisors for further review any scientifically sound
proposals that qualify as advancing us towards molecular nanotechnology and
that meet our financial guidelines. Our technical advisors verify the
scientific validity of the proposal and further evaluate the degree to
which the proposal advances us towards our overall technical goals.
Those projects that will advance us the most for the least amount of
resources are the best candidates to receive support from MMEI. To
ensure MMEI's continued ability to fund further research in these areas,
methods of gaining a return on the investment are desirable. We accommodate
each situation on a case-by-case basis, with as much flexibility as possible
within all state and federal regulations.
A brief look at some of the people
behind MMEI
Steven Vetter earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in software
engineering at the University of Illinois. He did his MBA studies at the
University of Minnesota. He has been working in the computer field for
nearly 20 years. Steven has founded or cofounded several companies and
written business plans for several others. He is a Senior Advisor of the
Space Studies Institute and has delivered numerous lectures and published
articles on future technologies. He has been an ardent supporter of
molecular nanotechnology for many years. His accomplishments in this area
include initiating the Senior Associate program at the
Institute for
Molecular Manufacturing and the
Foresight Institute, where he was the
first Senior Associate in both organizations, and founding the Minnesota
Nanotechnology Special Interest Group.
Scott MacLaren has degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) and the University of Illinois, where he has been
conducting postdoctoral research in materials science. He works on
the development of novel nanostructure fabrication techniques, and has
extensive experience in materials processing, microanalysis, and
characterization. He has consulted on a variety of science and
technology policy issues for the Japanese government. Scott is an
accomplished investor.
Dr. Tanya Sienko earned degrees in physics and Japanese from MIT.
She continued her graduate studies at Cornell and Tokyo Universities
and the University of Illinois, earning a PhD in solid state physics.
She returned to Japan in 1991, under a two-year Science and Technology
Agency Postdoctoral Fellowship. Presently, she is a researcher with
the Japanese National Institute of Science and Technology Policy.
She has developed extensive technical and policy contacts throughout
the Pacific Rim. She is the editor of two scientific journals, speaks
five languages, and has coauthored a book on Japanese.
Dr. Roald Hoffmann has made numerous contributions in the field of
chemistry, most notably in the area of geometrical structure and
reactivity of molecules. His contributions have earned him numerous
honors, including the 1981 Nobel prize in Chemistry. He is currently
a professor of chemistry at Cornell University, focusing in the area
of applied theoretical chemistry.
Dr. Ralph Merkle is one of
the leading researchers in the field of
molecular nanotechnology, primarily in the areas of computation,
automation, and safety. Prior to his work in this area, he made
significant contributions in the field of cryptography. He has
worked in molecular nanotechnology for over five years, and is
currently head of the
Computational Nanotechnology Project
at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
How else can I help MMEI attain its goals?
In addition to seeking proposals to consider, MMEI is interested in establishing
contacts with people who have the potential to submit proposals, provide
technical advice, or act as entrepreneurs. In addition, we are looking to
establish relationships with other seed and venture capital firms. Anyone
wishing to submit a proposal, provide us a contact, or ask us a question can
contact us via E-mail:
Molecular Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc., E-mail to:
svetter@mmei.com
Our mailing address:
Molecular Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc.
9653 Wellington Lane
Saint Paul, MN 55125
(612) 288-0093
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