We use intermolecular interactions to direct molecules into desired positions to create nanostructures, to connect functional molecules to the outside world, and to serve as test structures for measurements on single or bundled molecules. We use and develop scanning probe microscopes to determine both local structures and the electronic and other local properties. We have applied these to isolate molecules with electronic function to determine the mechanisms of function, and the relationships between molecular structure, environment, connection, coupling, and function. We have been able to demonstrate that single molecules can function as multistate switches, and have determined important aspects of the mechanism, function, and persistence of switching. We will discuss the origins of switching and the relevant aspects of the molecular structure and environment required. We apply selective chemistry and self-assembly in combination with conventional nanolithographic techniques to reach higher resolution, greater precision, and chemical versatility in the nanostructures that we create. The key to these approaches is using precise, robust molecular layers that attach selectively to specific patterned substrate materials.

Paul S. Weiss is a Professor of Chemistry and founding Director of the Center for Molecular Nanofabrication and Devices at The Pennsylvania State University, where he began his academic career as an assistant professor in 1989. He received his S.B. and S.M. degrees in chemistry from MIT in 1980 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1986. He was a post-doctoral member of technical staff at Bell Laboratories from 1986-1988 and a Visiting Scientist at IBM Almaden Research Center from 1988-1989. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Washington, Department of Molecular Biotechnology from 1996-1997 and at the Kyoto University, Electronic Science and Engineering Department and Venture Business Laboratory in 1998 and 2000. Since coming to Penn State, Weiss has been awarded a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award (1991-1996), the Scanning Microscopy International Presidential Scholarship (1994), the B. F. Goodrich Collegiate Inventors Award (1994), an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1995-1997), the American Chemical Society Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry (1996), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1997), and a National Science Foundation Creativity Award (1997-1999). He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000).

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