To get some insight into this new discipline, you might find this video describing the background to a researcher’s eureka moment well worth watching. It’s a talk by Geoffrey Ozin, widely regarded as the father of nanochemistry.

The science behind this talk is mostly about the principles of crystal photonics. It’s a study derived from and inspired by the phenomena which produce the hypnotic sparkling of opal gemstones and the spectacular hues of the iridescent blue butterfly.

Here’s a brief biography of the speaker:

Geoffrey Ozin studied at King’s College London and Oriel College Oxford University, before completing an ICI Postdoctoral Fellowship at Southampton University.

He is an Honorary Professor at The Royal Institution of Great Britain and University College London, External Advisor for the London Centre for Nanotechnology, Alexander von Humboldt Senor Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Surface and Colloid Science Potsdam. He’s also Guest Professor at the Centre for Functional Nanostructures at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Over a four-decade career he has made important scientific and technological advances in Nanochemistry, which have help shape the course of Nanotechnology. He has made benchmark discoveries in the emerging fields of Nanomaterials, Nanoporous Materials and Photonic Crystals.

Through creative materials chemistry he developed novel architectures that control electrons and photons in unprecedented ways. This has led to some revolutionary materials technology’s with several potential applications, including better-performing solar cells for clean energy generation, more efficient photocatalysts to clean up pollutants, chromatography stationary phases for higher resolution molecule and biomolecule separations, improved biometric security, banknote anticounterfiet and authentification systems, smaller faster chips for more powerful computers, and a new kind of full color photonic crystal display.

Here’s his page on the Applied Brilliance Conference site.

Here’s a link to his current website, GAO Materials Chemistry Group, at the Lash Miller Chemical Laboratory, University of Toronto