Nanometer structures have played a role in technology for millennia, but empirically derived. The invention of surface analytical tools in the 1960s/70s enabled science with one dimension in the nanometer range; commercial products based on that science are significant and growing. The invention of the proximal probes (scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy) has stimulated science with all dimensions-0 (dots, clusters, macromolecules), 1 (wires, tubes), 2 (vicinal surfaces),. 3 (nanostructured composites)-in the nanometer range. The U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative, and its equivalents in other countries, seek to accelerate progress in the scientific phase of discovery and invention, and to transition rapidly those innovations into technological opportunities. Building on its foundations in surface science, surface analysis, and electronics materials processing, the AVS has played a significant role in first creating and then promoting that progress.