Spartan Profiles: James R. Von Ehr, II
NANOTECHNOLOGY LEADER
Nanotechnology, the manipulation of single atoms and molecules to make better products, is so promising that on Dec. 3, President Bush signed a bill to invest $3.7 billion in R&D over the next four years. Of the eight key players attending the Oval Office signing were two Spartans—U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, ’74, and James R. Von Ehr, II, ’72, founder and CEO of Zyvex Corp, the nation’s first molecular nanotechnology company.
Located in Richardson, TX, Zyvex is spawning what some call the “Texas Nanotech Corridor” that will extend all the way through Austin and Houston and eventually dwarf Texas’ mammoth Telecom Corridor. “By controlling how the atoms come together, we'll be able to develop incredibly strong and tough materials, computers far beyond those of today, and even new medical treatments that will revolutionize health care,” explains Von Her. “One of the most exciting possibilities some of us see is to use nanotechnology to finally cost-effectively harvest the sun's energy, reducing our dependence on imported fossil fuel.”
A quiet revolutionary, Jim has already made several major splashes in business and technology. He created Fontographer, one of the pioneer software programs in desktop publishing. His biggest success was FreeHand, which has endured as one of the top software programs in desktop publishing. He made his programming breakthrough one Friday night in 1986, working from 5 p.m. till dawn, as he figured out how to program a computer curve to fit an artist’s freehand drawing. As the backbone product for Altsys, FreeHand made CEO Jim and many of his employees a fortune. He could have retreated with his millions to some tropical destination, but, as he recalls, “I thought about going to the beach for two seconds.”
Instead, Jim has devoted the last decade towards realizing the promise of nanotechnology because of its potential benefits to mankind. Imagine, for example, poor countries able to achieve self-assembling molecular manufacturing—using the basic elements of matter to create anything. Imagine the health benefits of having microscopic particles navigate through the body’s arteries to deliver drugs or diagnose illnesses. Inspired by such futuristic visions, Jim has spent more than $35 million of his personal fortune to found Zyvex, and donated $3.5 million for research at the University of Texas at Dallas. He helped form the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, a consortium of private and public entities who want to make Texas the American leader in the industry.
Born in Grand Rapids, Jim grew up in New Buffalo and was recruited to MSU as a National Merit Scholar. “Growing up lower middle class in a small town, it was amazing to move into Brody complex and realize the population of that complex was about the same as the entire town I had lived in,” he recalls. But pretty soon he got used to how things worked. He studied computer science in the era of punch cards and paper printouts. “I remember sneaking into the engineering building at night to use the remote I/O station,” Jim recalls. “The police would come roust us out from time to time, which made it hard to put in the hours that computer jocks like to put in. I also found an old analog computer hooked up to an IBM minicomputer, and tried to use that to make some computer movies, using its storage oscilloscope as an output device, but I didn't get too far.“
Jim cites professors Richard Reid, Len Weiner and Bernie Weinberg as having made an impact on him. “I also had a terrific psychology professor named David Wessel who taught cognitive psychology, still an interest of mine.”
After MSU he went to work at Texas Instrument. “Good thing,” he says. “I met my wife Gayla when we both started there the same day. One thing led to another, and three years later we got married—28 years ago this April.”
Last year Jim won the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award. “The judges were intrigued by this crazy guy who invested his own money to do something so out of the mainstream and so potentially important,” says Jim. “Zyvex is coming along extremely well, thanks to having such good people. We still have a lot of work to do, but are on a path to achieve the goals I envisioned in 1997.”
