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The Next

■

Thing

Mark Sims is with a three-dimensional model of a molecule.

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Special to the Jewish News

lia

ark Sims is a bit of a vision-
ary on the subject of nan-
otechnology, the so-far
impossible task of manufacturing really,
really, really small things.
How small?
The basic unit of measurement for
nanotechnology is the nanometer, a par-
ticle totaling a billionth of a meter. "If
you were a nanometer tall, it would take
32 years of walking, without ever sleep-
ing, to walk a meter," Sims says.
A human hair is about 20,000
nanometers thick.
Nanotechnology is the next huge
wave of scientific exploration, with the
potential to revolutionize life in this gen-
eration, says Sims, a Bloomfield
Township resident with his wife, Elaine
Fieldman, and their 14-year-old daugh-
ter. Sims serves on the executive board
of the Birmingham Temple.
With his new company, known as
Nanorex, he is poised to ride the nan-
otechnology wave from its very begin-
nings.
Sims, 41, began Nanorex just over a
year ago. The Bloomfield Hills-based
company creates computer software
designed to speed the process of nano-
design and analysis. The company has
seven employees: three in Michigan, two
in San Francisco, one in New York and
one in Pennsylvania.
"What we are developing is engineer-
ing programs to allow someone to
design and analyze nanotech devices so

they can see if these devices will work,"
Sims says. "You don't want to go off and
spend millions of dollars to develop a
product and then find the flaws in the
design.
"Right now, scientists and researchers
can use our models and say, Wow! It
would be cool if we could build this."'
The possibilities for mechanical
objects on the nano-scale are breathtak-
ing, Sims says, comparing the potential
to the plastics revolution of the 1960s.
"In our lifetime, we will see the first real
application in molecular engineering,"
he says. "Basic everyday products will be
made out of other materials, not just
plastics.
"Diamonds have a three-dimensional
structure that lends itself to building
something. Instead of laying down links,
we'll be laying down carbon atoms. I
expect to see consumer uses — for
example, wine glasses made of dia-
monds."
Other uses include self-regulating
computers that can swim through blood
to the brain to relieve memory loss and
nano-sized cleansers that would change
the molecular structure of polluted air.
It's the stuff of science fiction and, so
far, no one has actually built any of
these things.
But, when they do, they'll need corn-
puter modeling to prove the objects
work in real-life situations. And
Nanorex provides those computer mod-
els.
Damian Allis, a post-doctoral
researcher in computational chemistry at
Syracuse University, came to Sims' work

A Bloomfield Hills-based company is
poised for the nanotechnology revolution.

through his research as a theoretical
drug designer, investigating chemical
applications of nanotechnology.
"Mark's work will find a far greater
use than even he realizes," Allis says.
"This software is broad enough for
chemical uses as well as mechanical
ones."

Business Model

Nanorex is the second company Sims
has founded.
In 1992, he founded Netrex, using his
designs to provide or enhance computer
security for medium to large businesses.
After becoming the largest alarm com-
pany on the Internet, Sims sold the
business in 1999 to Internet Security
Systems.
Born in Indiana, Sims moved to Ann
Arbor at age 11 while his mother
attended the University of Michigan. He
later attended Community High School
for two years, then moved back to
Indiana with his mother.
In 1981, the future inventor/business-
man began his studies at Eastern
Michigan University. He earned a bach-
elor's degree at EMU in computer-aided
design in 1986. He also completed the
owners and presidents management pro-
gram at Harvard University, a highly
competitive three-year curriculum.
"Nanorex is not your typical business
model, because there's no market in the
traditional sense," Sims says. "We're
focusing on a very small set of users."
For this reason, the company is not
using traditional marketing strategies.

"Instead, we are contacting thought
leaders in this select group of researchers
into nanotechnology," Sims says. "It's a
tight network of leaders telling us how
our software works and suggested fea-
tures we can add. As the field grows, the
new people are going to seek out advice
from these leaders who will recommend
us.
"In universities, we are talking with
professors to encourage the use of our
software as a teaching aid. Right now,
nanotechnology engineering is just in a
textbook. With our stuff, people can
actually design multi-dimensional mod-
els."
There's no guarantee that scientists
will ever be able to manufacture nano-
sized gears, pulleys, recharging batteries
and the like. But it's extremely likely,
Allis says.
"The field is brand new — we're just
laying the groundwork," he says.
"Everything we know tells us these
things should be possible. If everybody
stopped and put money into it, like they
did for the space program, it would be
another decade or, at the most, two."
Allis says the field of nanotechnology
is "not just a small group of crazy head-
space people. A real lot of ugly research
is being done. Mark is absolutely on the
right track. I'd stake my degree on it."
Meanwhile, Sims is having the time of
his life. "I love what I'm doing," he says.
'Associating with these incredible scien-
tists is amazing.
"I feel sometimes like I'm in the mid-
dle of a science fiction story." O

at,

5/19

2005

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