Nanoparticles are seen either as building blocks of tailored properties for nanostructured materials and nanodevices, or as changing agents of physical phenomena, chemical or biological processes. Nanoparticle manufacturing processes aim to take advantage of several effects: (a) New physical, chemical or biological properties that are caused by the reduced size, such as larger surface area, quantum size effects, and other confinement effects; (b) New phenomena due to size reduction to the point where interaction length scales of physical and chemical phenomena become comparable or larger than the size of the particle or respective microstructure; (c) Generation of new atomic, molecular and macromolecular structures of materials by using either chemistry (ex: macromolecular structures and self-assembling techniques), nanofabrication (ex: creating nanostructures on surfaces), or biotechnology (ex: evolutionary approach) routes; and (d) Significant increase of the degree of complexity and speed. Key processes and applications will be outlined, including synthesis of engineered nanoparticles at high rates, processing/conversion of nanoparticles into functional nanostructures, utilization of nanoparticles for specific effects or phenomena, and process control.

M.C. Roco is the Director of the Fluid and Particle Processes program at NSF, chairs the Interagency Nano Science, Engineering and Technology Working Group, and coordinates the programs on academic liaison with industry (GOALI). Prior to joining National Science Foundation, Dr. Roco was Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky (1981-1995). During 1997 he had a visiting professorship with the Delft University of Technology in the area of particulate and multiphase processes. Dr. Roco was honored as recipient of the Carl Duisberg Award in Germany, the AIChE Gary Leach Award (1996) and the ASME Fluids Engineering Award (1998), and "Engineer of the Year" (1998) by the U.S. National Society of Professional Engineers. He is credited with 13 inventions, has authored more than 100 archival articles, and has co-authored three books "Slurry Flow: Theory and Practice" (Butterworth, 1991) and "Particulate Two-phase Flow" (Butterworth, 1993), and "Nanostructure Science and Technology" (Kluwer, 1999). A Fellow of ASME, Dr. Roco chairs the International Multiphase Award Committee, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research.