Robert Rudnitsky Elected Chair of OECD Working Party on Nanotechnology

Robert Rudnitsky has been elected chair of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Working Party on Nanotechnology (WPN). The election by the OECD's thirty member countries continues Robert's tenure as chair, which began when he was at the U.S. Department of State prior to joining the CNST in September 2009. The WPN is the principal multilateral group for coordinating national nanotechnology policies among countries with active nanotechnology research programs. It was begun three years ago as a U.S. initiative, and U.S. participation is led by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President (EOP-OSTP). The WPN's work focuses on sharing policy experiences regarding commercialization of nanotechnology, developing economic metrics for measuring its impact, setting standards for communicating with the public and engaging stakeholders, and promoting international nanotechnology research collaborations. Prior to joining the CNST, Robert worked at the U.S. State Department as an advisor on advanced technologies and chaired the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative's Global Issues in Nanotechnology Working Group.  He is currently the Scientific Advisor to the CNST, where he provides scientific, policy, and operational support to the Center, and is spearheading a regional outreach program for the CNST NanoFab, NIST's shared-use national nanofabrication facility.