Chad Mirkin

First Person | Chad Mirkin Courtesy of Chad Mirkin Coach Mirkin (center) with son Ben (left), and friend Ryan Wickel Chad A. Mirkin is a big name in the land of the small. A chemist who found his niche in nanotechnology, Mirkin, who's barely 39, is director of Northwestern University's Institute for Nanotechnology and a founder of two nano companies, Nanosphere and NanoInk, both in or near Chicago. With at least 50 patents and about 160 papers to Mirkin's and colleagues' credit, Mirkin recently received the Feynman Prize for, among other things, inventing a method of nanofabrication called Dip Pen Nanolithography™. DPN allows nanoscale structures and patterns to be built by drawing molecules onto a substrate. Also, over the last six years, his group has developed a suite of detection systems for DNA and protein markers that Mirkin thinks will transition diagnostics. "They will become the next generation of detection systems after fluorescence and PCR-based diagnostic systems," he says in a recent interview. In an earlier chat, Mirkin dismissed those who perceive nanotechnology as "too out there," as well as those who deem the field a panacea. "Something in the middle is correct." What's the worst job you've ever had? Gas station attendant. What discovery would you most like to have made? PCR. Of which papers are you most proud? The first is our 1996 Nature paper that described the use of DNA as a synthon for assembling inorganic nanoscale building blocks into functional materials.1 The second was a 1999 Science paper that reported the invention of Dip Pen Nanolithography.2 What is your first memory? It maybe goes back to when I was 3 -- my brother kicking me in the hand and breaking my little finger. Who is your scientific mentor? I have two. Gregg Geoffroy: He was my PhD mentor, and is now chancellor of Iowa State. Mark Wrighton: He was my postdoc mentor at MIT; he's now chancellor of Washington University. A lot of people say I drive people out of science! Do you have major frustrations with your work? It's always [with the] pace at which things happen.... [I want] to get to the next big discovery in a fraction of the amount of time that it takes to do it. What is your idea of perfect happiness? A 36-hour day. Are you a patient man? No. My secretaries and colleagues will confirm that. Have you mellowed with age? A little bit. My first grad students, it's taken them years of therapy to get over it.... Just kidding! If you could have five lab assistants, how would you configure the various levels of experience and why? Two postdocs and three graduate students. Postdocs provide the leadership and experience to give current short-term projects a major boost while graduate students are better for tackling some of the longer-term issues. What's your favorite meal? Barbecued ribs with homemade sauce! If you weren't a scientist, what would you be? A professional basketball player (assuming I had the talent) or coach. If you could have one question truthfully answered, what would it be? Is there life after death? Which scientist, living or dead, would you most like to meet? Irving Langmuir: He had so many seminal discoveries without the aid of modern instrumentation. What do people close to you give you a hard time about? Zoning out. What's the shortest time it's ever taken you to write a paper? 48 hours. What books are on your nightstand right now? Michael Crichton's Prey and Politics of Excellence: Behind the Nobel Prize in Science Which book do you keep meaning to read? "Politics of Excellence..." What music is in your CD player right now? Eric Clapton. Fill in the blank: "I'd rather be ... working on something other than this survey." References1. C.A. Mirkin et al., "A DNA-based method for rationally assembling nanoparticles into macroscopic materials," Nature, 382:607-9, 1996. 2. S. Hong et al., "Multiple ink nanolithography: Toward a multiple-Pen nano-plotter," Science, 286:523-5, 1999.

Chad Mirkin

The Scientist Staff

First Person | Chad Mirkin

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Courtesy of Chad Mirkin
Coach Mirkin (center) with son Ben (left), and friend Ryan Wickel