Concept
Bradley James Nelson (born 16 May 1962) is an American roboticist and entrepreneur. He has been the Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at ETH Zurich since 2002 and is known for his research in microrobotics, nanorobotics, and medical robotics. In 2005, Nelson was chosen as one of Scientific Americans top 50 leaders in science and technology for his work on practical applications of nanotubes. In 2019 he received the IEEE RAS Pioneer Award from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, "In recognition of outstanding contributions in micro and nano robotics". He is a co-founder of Aeon Scientific AG, Femtotools AG, OphthoRobotics AG, Magnes AG, Oxyle AG, and MagnebotiX AG. Ph.D. in Robotics (Robotics Institute, School of Computer Science), Carnegie Mellon University, 1995 M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1987 B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1984, University Honors/Bronze Tablet. Nelson held positions at Motorola and at Honeywell, and served with the United States Peace Corps in Botswana, Southern Africa. After earning his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1995, Nelson became an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, He moved to the University of Minnesota as an Associate Professor in 1998. In 2002 Nelson became a Full Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. Nelson has over thirty years of experience in the field of robotics. He specializes in nanotechnology and the development of microscopic robots for use in medicine and other applications. He is particularly known for his work in developing soft, biologically-inspired flexible architectures. In early research at ETH Zurich, researchers from the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS), led by Nelson, developed a robot to play nanosoccer on a field of play the size of a grain of rice. The international RoboCup Nanogram demonstration events were supported by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2007, 2008, and 2009.