Nanomanufacturing Research Profile

A preliminary look at the research trends in nanomanufacturing indicates, not surprisingly, that the highest areas of concentration are in the chemical and materials sciences. This conclusion is drawn from an analysis of Georgia Tech's Technology Policy and Assessment Center's (TPAC)  datasets for research publications in nanoscience and nanoengineering.

The Georgia Tech TPAC dataset covers the period 1991 - 2008 and is comprised of publication records from three major science and technology Indexing and Abstracting (IA) databases. This dataset has been analysed previously to map the interdisciplinarity of nanotechnology research (Porter, 2009) and, more recently, to chart a trend in published literature from passive to active nanostructures (Subramanian, 2010). 

Analysis of this dataset, performed by Harmeet Singh Gandhi for the NNN, extracted publication records for authors supported by NNN-affiliated research centers (CHM, CHN, SINAM, and nanoCEMMS). The analysis reveals that the general emphases of the authors' research activity is consistent with Porter's earlier findings—the most frequently occurring subject classifications fall with in the chemical and material sciences, as well as physics (See Table 1). 

Rank	# Records	Class Codes + Subject Category
1	575	Physics, Applied
2	535	Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
3	455	Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
4	389	Semiconductor Devices & Integrated Circuits
5	348	Physical Properties of Gases, Liquids & Solids
6	303	Crystalline Solids
7	295	Optical Devices & Systems
8	293	Chemistry, Physical
9	291	Light/Optics
10	282	Chemical Reactions