To date, nanotechnology has generated lots of excitement in the scientific community, but it hasn’t exactly brought about transformative changes in the life of the average person. In an effort turn that corner, UC Berkeley recently established the Center for Energy Efficient Electronics Science (E³S), where researchers will work to develop a new generation of nanotechnology-based computer chips that require so little energy that they may never need to be plugged in or recharged. The applications of this research go far beyond improving your laptop’s battery life (important as that might be) and into the realm of making entirely new technologies viable, like biosensors and ubiquitous wireless networks. E³S is led by EECS professor Eli Yablonovitch, whose long list of honors includes his very own Wikipedia entry.

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