Nanofabrication Engineer

Hollywood is filled with tall tales about small people. “The Incredible Shrinking Man” comes to mind, for instance, along with “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” “Beetlejuice,” and “Alice in Wonderland” — all of which feature characters that are shrunk down to miniature versions of themselves for the entertainment and amusement of audiences everywhere.

What’s science fiction in the world of cinema, however, is science fact in the world of technology, where the burgeoning science of nanotechnology makes miniscule manufacturing possible with the help of a new type of Engineer: the Nanofabrication Engineer.

As a Nanofabrication Engineer, you design and build tiny products and devices that are measured not in yards, feet, or inches, but rather in nanometers — which are one-millionth of a millimeter. Currently, those devices consist mostly of computer chips that are used by Computer Engineers to create microprocessors, and by Biomedical Engineers to create medical devices. In the future, however, nanofabrication could be used by Aerospace Engineers, Chemical Engineers, Industrial Engineers, and others to fabricate at a cellular level new substances that are thinner, lighter, stronger, and more flexible than conventional manufacturing materials, resulting in taller buildings, faster airplanes, and more efficient cars, among other things.

Like all Engineers, your job as a Nanofabrication Engineer is using scientific principles to create designs for new products and solutions. Your days are therefore spent drafting designs, making calculations, and testing prototypes, just like a typical Engineer. Because you work at the nano level, however, your coworkers aren’t just people. They’re atoms, and it’s your mission to determine the best ways to manipulate them on your way to making new technologies.