Speaker Profile
Dr. Branden Brough
Director, United States National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO)
Dr. Branden Brough is the Director of the United States National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO), as well as the Assistant Director for Nanotechnology in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). He serves as the national spokesperson and central point of contact for the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). In this role, Dr. Brough provides technical and advisory support for Federal nanotechnology research and development, and facilitates interagency communication and coordination across the 20+ Federal Departments and Agencies of the NNI. Previously, Dr. Brough served as the Deputy Director of the Molecular Foundry, a Department of Energy (DOE)-funded nanoscale science research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) that provides users from around the world with access to cutting-edge expertise and instrumentation. There, he helped guide the organization’s scientific plans and initiatives, while also managing the center’s operations. Before joining the Molecular Foundry, Dr. Brough worked at the NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), where he led strategic policy and planning activities, as well as Congressional and public outreach efforts. Dr. Brough received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering – focusing on the integration of synthetic motor molecules and natural self-assembling proteins into micro/nanotechnologies – from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), before becoming a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in 2007.