The promise of nanotechnology encompasses the energy, health care, defense, and chemical manufacturing sectors of the global economy. Gold nanorods are a class of nanomaterials that have tunable optical properties depending on par ticle shape, and these optical properties are key to sensor and imaging technology that directly impac these sectors of the global economy. In this talk I will detail how these nanomaterials are made and characterized; how the surface chemistry can be tuned to manipulate nanomaterial properties; and how the nature of the nanomaterial surface influences biological response at the molecular, cellular, and ecosystem levels.
