Harold Craighead, head of the Nanobiotechnology Center at Cornell, is considered to be one of the great international figures of the nanoscience revolution. He talks to Ottilia Saxl of NANO Magazine about Cornell’s early vision for supporting nanoscience research, his own role in realizing a netwokd of national centres to support nanoscience research, his particular commitment to using nanofabrication techniques to support Nan bioscience research, and how this has led to exciting new research directions.