Dr. Keiko Munechika, Manager, Nanofabrication, aBeam Technologies, Hayward, CA

Dr. Munechika — along with Alexander Kosh­elev and Giuseppe Calafiore at aBeam Technologies, and Stefano Cabrini at the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — is developing a process that would enable widespread adoption of nano-optic technology. The team perfected a technique for fabricating a Campanile probe, whose tapered, four-sided shape resembles the top of the Campanile clock tower on UC Berkeley’s campus. The probe focuses an intense beam of light onto a much smaller spot than is possible with current optics.