Phaedon Avouris

Manager, Nanometer Scale Science and Technology,IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

Most Important Technology of the Last 40 Years:

The integrated circuit.

Most Important Technology for the Coming Decade:

Protein engineering leading to new types of plants and animals.

Technology That has Evolved in a Surprising Way:

As long as a technology doesn't violate any fundamental physical laws, it's possible.

"In science, you can have a revelation overnight. But technology takes a long time to develop. Revolutionary technologies depend on people who have new ideas about what will be needed and accepted by society, rather than those who just come up with new technological concepts. When I worked at Bell Labs in the late 1970s, there was a visual phone that let you and a friend, who was in a separate booth, talk to and see each other. That capability existed all the way back then. Yet it still hasn't reached the market, because people aren't interested."