James B. Lewis

Dr. Lewis earned his B.A. degree in Chemistry in1967 from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA., his M.A. in Chemistry, 1968, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA., and his Ph.D.in Chemistry, 1972, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. After his graduate work in RNA biochemistry and structure, Dr. Lewis spent 17 years studying the molecular biology of DNA tumor viruses, with emphasis on the adenovirus oncogenes.

He switched research focus upon joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, first doing some work on HIV proteins, and then spending 6 years working on active immunotherapy for cancer (cancer vaccines). During his last six months at BMS, he switched projects again, returning to molecular virology to begin a project to identify viral protein – cellular protein interactions that are important for the pathogenicity of HIV in the hope that these interactions would prove useful targets for drug screening. He has over 46 research papers published.

Over the past 10 years, he has become increasingly interested in the evolution of current technology towards molecular nanotechnology, the anticipated ability to inexpensively fabricate complex molecular machinery having a broad range of capabilities. In his spare time, he familiarized himself with the technological and scientific issues at a general level and co-edited two books on the subject: Nanotechnology: Research and Perspectives, BC Crandall and J. Lewis (editors), 1992, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, and Prospects in Nanotechnology: Toward Molecular Manufacturing. M. Krummenacker and J. Lewis (editors). 1995. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapore.