William McLellan (nanotechnology)
Encyclopedia
William Howard McLellan was an American electrical engineer.
In December 1959, Nobel Prize-winning
physicist Richard Feynman
offered two challenges relating to nanotechnology
at the annual meeting of the Americal Physical Society, held that year at Caltech, offering a $1000 prize to the first person to solve each of them. The first one required someone to build a working electric motor that would fit inside a cube 1/64 inches on each side. McLellan, at that time living nearby, achieved this feat by November 1960 and won the prize; his 250-microgram 2000-rpm motor consisted of 13 separate parts.
The prize for the second challenge was claimed only much later, by Tom Newman
in 1985.
In December 1959, Nobel Prize-winning
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
physicist Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
offered two challenges relating to nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
at the annual meeting of the Americal Physical Society, held that year at Caltech, offering a $1000 prize to the first person to solve each of them. The first one required someone to build a working electric motor that would fit inside a cube 1/64 inches on each side. McLellan, at that time living nearby, achieved this feat by November 1960 and won the prize; his 250-microgram 2000-rpm motor consisted of 13 separate parts.
The prize for the second challenge was claimed only much later, by Tom Newman
Tom Newman (scientist)
Tom Newman, a graduate student at Stanford University in 1985, was one of the two people to solve one of a pair of challenges put forth by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society in 1959, in a talk titled "There's Plenty of Room at the...
in 1985.