Richard Smith is President of Flexible Medical Systems, LLC, a design and manufacturing firm using nanotech and MEMS to build pain-free communicating medical diagnostic devices.

BS in Business Administration from Thomas Edison College; MS in Science and Technology Studies (thesison Nanotechnology Policy) from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech); doctoral candidate in Science Policy from Virginia Tech.

Richard was the Co-Founder of the Nanotechnology Policy Foundation and President of the Nanotechnology Network. Prior to launching these organizations, he was a Senior Futurist for the Institute for Alternative Futures, a healthcare and pharma think tank in Washington, DC. Before joining IAF, Richard was the Director of the Global Forum on Technology Forecasting for Coates & Jarratt, Inc. He has been involved in the study of nanotechnology since 1994, writing his thesis on nanotechnology policy and serving on the biotechnology and nanotechnology study section and the final design team for the Department of Defense Military Health System 2025 task force. He co-chaired the symposium on the convergence of nanotechnology and biotechnology at the annual meeting of the AAAS in 2003. He has been a prolific writer and speaker on the topic of nanotechnology and medicine and is a certified medical practice executive. Richard was a strategic planner for AT&T, Unisys, and SONY and a Director of Planning and Research Administration for the Georgetown University Medical School.

I spend most of every day (and have since the early 1990s) thinking about how nanoscience and nanotechnology can improve life for mankind. I recognize that there are risks and unintended consequences, but I think the potential benefits outweigh the potential downsides and that we should strive prudently towards nanosolutions to such global problems as disease, reliance on petrochemicals, and the lack of sufficient clean water. I invest approximately a quarter of my time working on nanotechnology policy (public outreach, risk studies, etc.), a quarter of my time on networking and commercialization (paving the way for nanoscience to move from the university lab to the marketplace), and half my time creating for-profit companies that generate nano-based solutions.