An unlikely match was made last night as CEO of Vesilan Nanotechnologies Cynthia Kuper brought together engineering and the fashion brand Chanel.
Kuper visited Penn Monday evening in the Raisler Lounge of the Towne Building to give a lecture titled “Nanotechnology: From Bolts to Baguettes.”
The lecture was presented by the Penn Nanotech Society and the Technology Entrepreneurship Club, as part of Penn’s E-week.
Vesilant Nanotechnologies as a whole is dedicated to the invention and marketing of nanotechnology-based materials.
The audience of approximately 30 students was composed overwhelmingly of engineers, but was comprised evenly of freshmen, sophomore, juniors and seniors.
Kuper spoke frankly in the seminar-sized lounge with enthusiastic gestures and informational presentation slides to complement her lecture.
Although she began the presentation with an introduction to the developing science of nanotechnology, Kuper focused her lecture on connecting the fields of science and business. She urged students to become scientists who think like businessmen, emphasizing the link between inventing in the lab and marketing products in the world.
Kuper explained that, at the age of 15, she became interested in science when she became involved in cancer research. She followed her passion of creating by becoming a material scientist. “I looked for what was fun for me and not looked at by my colleagues,” she said.
Kuper targeted watch diamonds and the “C’s” of the Chanel fashion brand with new scientific methods of making diamonds look better for longer.
Following the lecture Kuper led a question-and-answer session, in which students could express their interest in nanotechnology through complex questions.
Engineering junior Shengya Cao, a board member of the Penn Nanotech Society, said Kuper was invited because of her “interesting history in entrepreneurship.”
“She did a very good job of balancing the scientific and business aspects of nanotechnology … something easy to lose track of,” she added.
Engineering senior and attendee Greg Wiedman said he took Engineering Entrepreneurship I and II and hopes “to become an entrepreneur.”
Jack Yin, a freshman in the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology said, “I’m not in the field so I want to learn more” because “to learn about nanotechnology is kind of a mysterious thing.”
