Robert A. Freitas Jr. is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. He holds degrees in physics, psychology, and law, and has written more than 150 technical papers, book chapters, or popular articles on a diverse set of scientific, engineering, and legal topics. He co-edited the 1980 NASA feasibility analysis of self-replicating space factories and later authored the first detailed technical design study of a medical nanorobot ever published in a refereed medical journal.

Most recently, Freitas authored Nanomedicine, the first book-length technical discussion of the potential medical applications of molecular nanotechnology and medical nanorobotics. Volume I was published in October 1999 by Landes Bioscience while Freitas was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing in Palo Alto, California. He published Volume IIA in October 2003 with Landes Bioscience while serving as a Research Scientist at Zyvex Corp., a nanotechnology company headquartered in Richardson, Texas, during 2000-2004. Freitas is now completing Nanomedicine Volumes IIB and III and is consulting on diamond mechanosynthesis and molecular assembler design as Senior Research Fellow at IMM.

Also in 2004, Robert Freitas and Ralph Merkle coauthored and published Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, the first survey of the field of physical self-replicating machines ever published. The book is expected to be freely available online some time in 2005.

External links

• Robert Freitas's website (including his publications)
• Nanomedicine website Freitas' Nanomedicine book series on medical nanorobotics, freely available online
• A paper on Respirocytes (artificial red cells) by Freitas (first medical nanorobot design paper ever published)
• A paper on Microbivores (artificial white cells) by Freitas
• Molecular assembler website
• Report on self-replicating space factories 1980 NASA Study edited by Freitas
• Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines first survey of field, by Freitas and Merkle

See also: K. Eric Drexler, Ralph Merkle