The Legacy of Apollo 11

Special Guest

The University of Tennessee

Dr. Michael L. Simpson joins The Housing Hour to discuss the lasting legacy of one America’s most historic feats-“…one giant leap for mankind.” Dr. Simpson brings his vast scientific background to help us unwrap possibly one of the greatest accomplishments the world has ever seen.

Topic Includes:

Where were you?

Mission Facts (Oak Ridge Lab Involvement)

Technology spinoffs

Mars next?

And so much more!

Dr. Simpson earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee in 1983, 1987, and 1991, respectively. His dissertation research focused on charge trapping correction in high-purity germanium radiation detectors. At the time he received his Ph.D. Simpson worked in R&D at EG&G Ortec and moved to the Scientific Staff of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1992 where he initially worked on the design of high-speed, custom, analog, integrated circuits for collider physics experiments. Later Simpson’s research interest focused more on nanoscale structures, and in particular, on the interface between nanoscale devices and biological systems. Simpson is now a Distinguished Research Staff Member and Theme Leader in the ORNL Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences.  Dr. Simpson began a joint faculty appointment with the University of Tennessee in 1993, first with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and now with the Materials Science and Engineering Department, where he teaches nano bioscience courses and performs research at the physical-biological sciences boundary.  Dr. Simpson has authored or co-authored 115 peer-reviewed journal papers, holds 24 U.S. Patents and has presented numerous invited talks at conferences, workshops, and symposia. Research Areas

(Click each area for more information!)

» Molecular-Scale Engineering and Nanoscale Technologies

» Nanophase Materials Sciences Selected Awards and Honors

2007    Named a Battelle Memorial Institute Distinguished Inventor
1998    Kermit Fischer Environmental Award for the Pioneering Development of an Integrated CMOS Photo-Spectrometer for Wide Applications including Environmental Monitoring.
1998    Finalist for a Discover Magazine Technology Innovation award for the development of the Bioluminescent Bioreporter Integrated Circuit.
1998    Awarded Lockheed-Martin Energy Research Corporation Medal for Excellence in Technical Achievement, for the co-development of a deep submicron lithography method.
1998    Awarded Lockheed-Martin Energy Research Corporation Medal for Excellence in Technical Achievement for the co-development of an integrated circuit for a collider detector application.
1997    Awarded Lockheed-Martin Energy Research Corporation Medal for Excellence in Technical Achievement for the development of a single-chip photo-spectrometer. Professional Activities

» Co-Chair and IEEE-EMBS representative for the second Bio-, Micro-, and Nanosystems Biology Conference sponsored by the American Society of Microbiology and IEEE-EMBS, January 15-18, 2006.

» Co-Chair and IEEE-EMBS representative for the first Bio-, Micro-, and Nanosystems Biology Conference sponsored by the American Society of Microbiology and IEEE-EMBS, July 7-10, 2003.

» Member of the Advisory Committee for the Georgia Tech Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 2001

» Member of the Advisory Committee for the Georgia Tech First Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, October 2000 Selected Publications

M. J. Doktycz and M. L. Simpson, “Nano-enabled synthetic biology,” Mol Syst Biol, vol. 3, 2007.

M. L. Simpson “Cell-free synthetic biology: a bottom-up approach to discovery by design,” Mol. Syst. Biol., vol. 2, 2006.

Austin, D. W., M. S. Allen, J. M. McCollum, R. D. Dar, J. R. Wilgus, G. S. Sayler, N. F. Samatova, C. D. Cox, & M. L. Simpson, “Gene Network Shaping of Inherent Noise Spectra”, Nature 439, Feb. 2, 2006,  608-611.

Melechko, A.V., V.I. Merkulov, T.E. McKnight, M.A. Guillorn, K.L. Klein, D.H. Lowndes, and M.L. Simpson. “Vertically aligned carbon nanofibers and related structures: Controlled synthesis and directed assembly.” J. Appl. Phy., 97(4), Feb. 15, 2005, 041301-39.

Fletcher, B. L., E. D. Hullander, A. V. Melechko, T. E. McKnight, K. L. Klein, D. K. Hensley, J. L. Morrell, M. L. Simpson, M. J. Doktycz. “Microarrays of biomimetic cells formed by the controlled synthesis of carbon nanofiber membranes.” Nano Letters 2004,4(10), October 2004, 1809-1814.

M. L. Simpson, C.D. Cox, and G.S. Sayler, “Frequency domain chemical Langevin analysis of stochasticity in gene transcriptional regulation”. J. Theo. Bio. 229(3), August 2004, 383-394.
McKnight, T. E., A. V. Melechko, G. D. Griffin, M. A. Guillorn, V. I. Merkulov, F. Serna, D. K. Hensley, M. J. Doktycz, D. H. Lowndes, and M. L. Simpson. “Intracellular integration of synthetic nanostructures with viable cells for controlled biochemical manipulation.” Nano Letts. 4(7); July 7, 2004, 1213-1219.

M. L. Simpson, C. D. Cox, G. D. Peterson, and G. S. Sayler. “Engineering in the Biological Substrate: Information Processing in Genetic Circuits.” Proc. IEEE. Vol. 92(5), May 2004, 848-863.

Tagged as: Neil Armstrong,  Dr. Michael L. Simpson,  Apollo 11,  Space,  Man on the moon.