Michael W. Smith, PhD
Chief Scientist
Dr. Smith was the NASA principal on the 2016 NASA "Government Invention of the Year" award, granted for the development of the "HTP" synthesis technique for the manufacture of boron nitride nanotubes, the technology on which BNNT, LLC was founded. Originally from Newport, RI, Dr. Smith received a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from Princeton where he studied supersonic turbulence for the US Air Force. He was first employed as a ‘fresh out’ by NASA Langley to work on NASP, the hypersonic "National AeroSpace Plane" in the early 1990's. He began his career developing laser diagnostic techniques for supersonic combustion ramjet and aeroacoustics research. In 2000, collaborating with the College of William and Mary, he founded a dedicated nanomaterials research lab for NASA at Jefferson Lab, built around the world's most powerful power free electron laser which had recently been constructed there. He led the development of groundbreaking high power laser techniques for the synthesis of first carbon, then boron nitride nanotubes. In 2011, he left NASA to work full time on the establishment of BNNT, LLC and has served as Chief Scientist since its founding.