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Peter Hartwell

Senior Researcher, Quantum Structures Research

Peter Hartwell is a senior researcher at HP Labs. HP Labs is the exploratory and advanced research group for HP, tackling complex challenges facing its customers and society over the next decade, while pushing the frontiers of fundamental science. HP Labs' research spans a wide range of technical disciplines and businesses. Collectively, HP applies its expertise to address eight opportunities—analytics, cloud, content transformation, digital commercial print, immersive interaction, information management, intelligent infrastructure, and sustainability—that are believed to be crucial to defining the future of information technology. More about HP's sustainability efforts can be found here.

Peter is currently the project team lead for HP Labs Central Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE) which aims to build a planet-wide sensing network using billions of tiny, cheap, tough, and exquisitely sensitive detectors. The concept CeNSE is to have nodes about the size of a pushpin stuck to bridges and buildings to warn of structural strains or weather conditions. It could also be embedded in everyday electronics to track hospital equipment, sniff out pesticides and pathogens in food, or even "recognize" the person using them and adapt.

Trained in the field of micro-electro-mechanical systems, Peter joined HP Labs in 1999 to work on the atomic resolution storage (ARS) program. ARS sought to miniaturize a CD-RW–like storage system on a single silicon chip creating a new type of non-volatile, solid-state storage. He joined the Quantum Structures Research group at HP Labs in 2005.

Peter received his B.S.E. in materials science and engineering from the University of Michigan (1992) and his Ph. D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University (1999). His hobbies include classic computers, snowboarding, cycling, and fixing things.

Focus: Environment, Innovation, Science, Technology, United States, Americas

Link: http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/qsr/people/Peter_Har...

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