NNI Releases Video Documentary Highlighting the Past 20 Years

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) announced on April 11, 2022, the release of a video documentary, NNI Retrospective Video: Creating a National Initiative, produced in cooperation with TV Worldwide. According to NNI, the video was made for the 20th NNI grantees conference at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Former President Clinton announced the creation of NNI in January 2000. NSF led the preparation of NNI together with other agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Jim Murday was named the first Director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office to support the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology Subcommittee of the White House National Science and Technology Council. The scientific and societal success of NNI has been recognized in the professional communities, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and Congress. The interviews in the video explain why the creation of NNI was successful. Interviews focus on three questions: motivation and how NNI started; the process and reason for the success in creating NNI; and outcomes of NNI after 20 years and how the initial vision has been realized.