title: Genesis of creativity.
abstract: As advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology are sought, what will be the source of the inspiration to open the doors for new developments? In my opinion, it most often resides in the ingenuity of students, and among those ingenious students, was there a formative spark or a progressive set of stimuli in their childhoods that gave rise to the most precious asset in scientific advance, namely, creativity? Here, I outline the work of three of my students who have propelled the field of nanotechnology, and then I glimpse into their childhood years to see if there lays the key.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, and the Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA. tour@rice.edu
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tour
mesh_terms: D003405:Creativity; D036103:Nanotechnology