29: Lynn Loo - You've just stepped on my soapbox

28: Dennis Hess - That's a big big number

Dennis Hess from the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech joins the podcast to talk about the early days of the semiconductor industry. We discuss the birth of Fairchild Semiconductor, the so-called "traitorous eight," and their groundbreaking process innovations that still underlie integrated circuit manufacturing. (Recorded on January 31, 2017. Edited by Andrew Cannon.)

27: Bara Cola - Naive is not a strong enough word

Bara Cola makes an encore appearance on the podcast to chat about Carbice, a company he founded to commercialize next generation heat transfer materials for cooling electronic devices. We discuss the value and challenge of maintaining business relationships, how competition from abroad is changing the playing field for technology start-ups, and the excitement surrounding a number of carbon nanotube-based products now making their way to the market. (Recorded on January 26, 2017)

26: Jen Dionne - The light at the end of the tunnel

25: Vivian Ferry - What constraints are really constraints?

24: Jim Pfaendtner - Our science is at HD

Jim Pfaendtner is a chemical engineer at the University of Washington in Seattle. He joined the podcast to talk about data — the flood of it from modern experiments and simulations, the challenge of dealing with it, and its potential to transform the practice of science and engineering. Other critical topics include the Tacoma Aroma, Swiss army knives, the meaning of life, the dangers of Microsoft Excel, and SkyNet. (Recorded on November 15, 2016 from the Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers)

23: Eray Aydil - Go to the lab and make "accidents" happen

Eray Aydil from the University of Minnesota joins the podcast to discuss surfaces — the boundaries between two phases. We talk about what they are, how they're interrogated, and why they’re important. Along the way, we also touch on the changing relationship between academia and industry, the importance of serendipity in scientific discovery, and how maintaining enthusiasm during early college courses is surprisingly indicative of future success in science and engineering. (Recorded on November 10, 2016 from the 63rd AVS Symposium and Exhibition in Nashville, Tennessee)

22: Alphabet Energy - That’s a useless thermoelectric material

John Reifenberg, Jeff Weisse, and Tapan Patel from the start-up company Alphabet Energy join the podcast to discuss something all around us: heat. Alphabet Energy is trying to harvest waste heat and, in doing so, increase the energy efficiency of cars, chemical plants, refrigerators, and much more. We focus on thermoelectrics — devices that convert heat into electrical energy. We discuss what’s needed for thermoelectrics to become mainstream products, what’s missed when peak materials performance is overemphasized, and the difficulty of translating laboratory-based fabrication techniques into large-scale manufacturing. (Recorded on October 18, 2016)

21: Chris Toumey - Writing is a lot of hard work

Chris Toumey is an anthropologist who specializes in the societal and cultural issues surrounding nanotechnology. We cover a lot of ground in our discussion, including the origins of nanotechnology, how its potential to fundamentally impact the human condition make it ripe for individual interpretation, how different religious groups view nanotechnology, and much more. (Recorded on September 27, 2016)

20: Mark Hersam - You get a phone call out of the blue

Mark Hersam is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University and a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant winner. He's a pioneer in the area of nanomaterials separations, the processes by which nanomaterials are purified. We chat about the impact of his lab’s breakthrough demonstration of carbon nanotube purification, the perceived value of separations in general, the commercial status of the technology, and the road ahead.  (Recorded on September 20, 2016)