Mihail Roco is the chair of the US National Science and Technology Council

National Science and Technology Council

The National Science and Technology Council was established in the US by Executive Order 12881 on November 23, 1993.-History:The National Science and Technology Council was established in the US by Executive Order on November 23, 1993...

 subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET), and is Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology at the National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...

. He is also the managing editor

Managing editor

A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team.In the United States, a managing editor oversees and coordinates the publication's editorial activities...

 of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research

Journal of Nanoparticle Research

The Journal of Nanoparticle Research is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. It focuses mainly on physical, chemical, and biological phenomena and processes in structures of sizes comparable to a few nanometers...

.

Career

Prior to joining National Science Foundation, he obtained a doctorate from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (1976), he was Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky

University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...

 (1981–1995), and held visiting professorships at the California Institute of Technology

California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...

 (1988–1989), Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 (1993–1995), Tohoku University

Tohoku University

, abbreviated to , located in the city of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture in the Tōhoku Region, Japan, is a Japanese national university. It is the third oldest Imperial University in Japan and is a member of the National Seven Universities...

 (1989), and Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology , also known as TU Delft, is the largest and oldest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands...

 (1997–98). He has played a leadership role in the National Nanotechnology Initiative

National Nanotechnology Initiative

The National Nanotechnology Initiative is a United States federal nanoscale science, engineering, and technology research and development program...

 and in developing perspectives on the societal implications of nanotechnology

Implications of nanotechnology

The impact of nanotechnology extend from its medical, ethical, mental, legal and environmental applications, to fields such as engineering, biology, chemistry, computing, materials science, military applications, and communications....

 and on convergence of nanotechnology with other fields, in what is sometimes called converging technologies or emerging technologies

Emerging technologies

In the history of technology, emerging technologies are contemporary advances and innovation in various fields of technology. Various converging technologies have emerged in the technological convergence of different systems evolving towards similar goals...

.
He was declared engineer of the year in 1999 and 2004 by NSF and the U.S. National Society of Professional Engineers

Awards

He was honored as recipient of the Carl Duisberg Award in Germany, “Burgers Professorship Award” in Netherlands and the “University Research Professorship” award in U.S. He was named the “Engineer of the Year” in 1999 and again in 2004 by the U.S. National Society of Professional Engineers and NSF. In 2002, he received the “Best of Small Tech Awards” (“Leader of the American nanotech revolution”). Forbes magazine recognized him in 2003 as the first among “Nanotechnology’s Power Brokers” and Scientific American named him one of 2004’s top 50 Technology Leaders. Dr. Roco is the 2005 recipient of the AIChE Forum Award "for leadership and service to the national science and engineering community through initiating and bringing to fruition the National Nanotechnology Initiative". He received the National Materials Advancement Award from the Federation of Materials Societies at the National Press Club in 2007 for NNI leadership and “as the individual most responsible for support and investment in nanotechnology by government, industry, and academia worldwide”.

On Sep. 7th, 2011, he received the ChinaNANO Award at the www.chinanano.org in Beijing, China.