Dr. Michael L. Simpson is the founding Principal Investigator of the Molecular-Scale Engineering and Nanoscale Technologies Research Group and the Thrust Area Leader for the Nanofabrication Research Laboratory that will be located at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Material Science (one of five Department of Energy Nanoscience Research Centers) that began construction in April 2003. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee (UT) in Electrical Engineering in 1991 and is now a UT/ORNL Joint Faculty Member. His academic appointments are in the Materials Science and Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering Departments at the rank of Professor, and he is a participating faculty member in the Center for Environmental Biotechnology and Tennessee Advanced Materials Laboratory Research Centers of Excellence. His research interests lie at the intersection of physical and life sciences with a particular focus on the analysis and modeling of information transport in biological systems and the development of molecular-scale interfaces between whole cells and nanostructured synthetic substrates.
Dr. Simpson has authored more than 90 papers and holds six patents, eight more of which are pending.