Philip Streich, 17 Platteville, Wisconson Nano Entrepeneur
First Steps: Since he was 10 years old, Streich has lived on a farm, helping tend crops and livestock. Homeschooled since the seventh grade, he began taking science and math courses in the ninth grade at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. There he teamed up with James Hamilton, a chemistry professor who introduced him to the microscopic carbon cylinders known as nanotubes.
The Challenge: Superstrong carbon nanotubes have a wide array of potential applications, including lighter bulletproof vests and more responsive touch screens, but they have a tendency to clump together, which makes them difficult to work with. To solve the problem, chemists had been coating the nanotubes with various substances, but doing so often altered the tubes’ physical and electrical properties, thus limiting their utility. Streich and Hamilton thought there might be a better way: Dissolving the nanotubes in some sort of solvent would keep them from clumping without altering their properties. But no one knew if there was a solvent that could do the job.
