Robert A. Freitas Jr. (born 1952) is an American nanotechnologist.

Early life and education

Freitas was born in Camden, Maine. His father worked in agriculture and his mother was a homemaker. Freitas married Nancy, his childhood sweetheart in 1974. In 1974, Freitas earned a bachelor's degree in both physics and psychology from Harvey Mudd College, and in 1978, he received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the Santa Clara University School of Law. He has written more than 150 technical papers, book chapters, and popular articles on scientific, engineering, and legal topics.

Career

Freitas interests include nanorobotics, how nanotechnology can extend the life of humans, self-replicating machines, and Cryonics. Freitas introduced the concept of "sentience quotient" in the late 1970s. In 1980, Freitas and William Gilbreath were participants in a NASA study regarding "Advanced Automation for Space Missions", and they presented the feasibility of self-replicating machines in space, using advanced artificial intelligence and automation technologies. Freitas began writing his Nanomedicine book series in 1994. Volume I, published in October 1999 by Landes Bioscience while Freitas was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. Volume IIA was published in October 2003 by Landes Bioscience. In 2004, Freitas and Ralph Merkle coauthored and published Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, a comprehensive survey of the field of physical and hypothetical self-replicating machines. In 2009, Freitas was awarded the Feynman Prize in theoretical nanotechnology. Afterwards, he was granted the first patent for a Mechanosynthesis tool which he developed while working at Zyvex. The tool is theoretically to be used in molecular engineering.