The New Polymath

Written by Vinnie Mirchandani on 10 May 2010

Cris Orfescu was born in Romania and has a strong science background common for so many from the former Eastern Bloc. But he is also a self taught artist and that part of him has blossomed since he immigrated to Los Angeles. He blends science and art in what he calls NanoArt. Orfescu provides high-resolution electron scans of nanosculptures he creates and structures occurring naturally, and encourages artists to alter the images and create even more new NanoArt.

I am the author of an upcoming book, The New Polymath, which features nanotechnology. A polymath is Greek for a Renaissance person like Leonardo Da Vinci or Ben Franklin, good at many disciplines. The New Polymath, in my book, is an enterprise which amalgamates 3,5,10 strands of infotech, biotech, nanotech, cleantech, healthtech to create innovative new solutions. I am a former Gartner analyst and write an innovation blog which catalogs over 40 categories of technology from mobile computing to genetics. I had been aware of Orfescu’s NanoArt festivals and thought it would be appreciative to include his work in the section on nanotech.

I have another chapter which imagines all the hundreds of innovators profiled in the book brought together at a conference in Italy. And, as in the movie Field of Dreams, 10 Polymaths from history show up at the conference, and Michelangelo shows interest in nanoart.

Indeed the book ends as follows:

In another realm, Michelangelo looked down and saw the Piazza della Signoria grow more crowded with tourists, and he turned his attention back to reinterpreting David in nanoart. Then he sighed that six centuries later he still had to worry about new masterpieces Leonardo might create in this new art form.

My book comes out in June from John Wiley and Co. You can preorder now at Amazon. Also, you can see on-going excerpts on the Facebook page and the LinkedIn group for the book.

Invigorating as NanoArt is, I think you will enjoy reading about other innovators in corporate labs and also in places you may not expect much innovation – in the farms of Ireland, the streets of Estonia, the hills of Macedonia and the backroads of Rwanda.