Stephen Steiner(III)

Stephen A. Steiner III is an American materials scientist, aerospace engineer, and entrepreneur who specializes in exotic materials such as aerogels, graphene, carbon nanotubes, diamond, superconductors, and transuranium elements. Steiner holds a PhD in Materials Chemistry from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, an SM in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT, and a BS in Chemistry Course from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is an accomplished researcher and entrepreneur in the field of nanomaterials, with interests including aerogels and related porous nanoarchitectures, synthesis of nanocarbons, reduced gravity materials processing, and design of advanced materials for aerospace applications. Steiner began his journey into science as a 17-year-old basement tinkerer in Wisconsin, inventing a process for making aerogel that led to his first of over a dozen patents. He is the co-editor of The Springer Handbook of Aerogels and has authored/coauthored numerous scholarly articles in high-impact journals. Steiner co-founded the open-source nanotechnology initiative Aerogel.org and has been featured in several television and social media video productions. For 21 years Steiner also served as a flight director aboard parabolic flights for the Zero Gravity Corporation, where he has spent over 10 hours weightless in 20-sec bursts.