Mark Bunger

The article The next big bang: Man meets machine said

In science-fiction fantasies, the melding of organic matter and digital technology usually takes human form, from Steve Austin’s six-million-dollar bionics to the replicants running amok in “Blade Runner” to the Terminator.
 
Yet research on multiple fronts in digital technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology may, over the next half century, alter the way we think about computers and information, and our relationship to them. With these changes, bionic body parts won’t seem so far-fetched as we increasingly develop ways to integrate high-tech materials into our mortal flesh.
 
And the reverse is true as well. Researchers are now looking to biological materials such as bacteria, viruses, proteins and DNA to replace mechanical parts in computers. And as the age of genetic engineering matures, scientists are already borrowing techniques from software developers to build libraries of genetic information.
 
All of these overlapping strands of scientific inquiry are known colloquially as “BANG”, which stands for bits, atoms, neurons and genes. “All these things are converging because biology, nanotech and organic chemistry are running together”, says Mark Bunger, an analyst with Lux Research. “The boundaries are really getting sketchy.”

Mark Bunger is a Senior Analyst at Lux Research based in the firm’s San Francisco office. Lux Research is the world’s premier research and advisory firm focusing on the business and economic impact of nanotechnology.
 
Mark joined Lux Research with 14 years of business strategy experience, both as a management consultant and technology analyst. Most recently, he was a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, where he studied and advised clients in manufacturing industries including automotive and aerospace. Prior to that, he was an International Engagement Manager at European consultancy Icon Medialab, as well as the Managing Director of Icon Medialab’s U.S. office. The first six years of his career were spent at Accenture in the U.S., U.K., and Scandinavia, where he was a consultant focusing on a variety of industries and technologies. Mark and his work have figured in leading business journals and other media outlets in the U.S. and Europe, including CNN, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and other regional and trade publications.
 
He is a coinventor on three patents (one pending), and is the cofounder of the leading online promotional currency company, SoftCoin, which manages multimillion-dollar campaigns for clients such as Kodak, Proctor & Gamble, Frito-Lay, and Nokia. He has served as Chairman and Vice-Chair of the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce on the regional and national level, respectively.
 
His education includes International Marketing at Märdalen Polytechnic in Sweden, and Market Research at the University of Texas in the U.S. In addition, he studied biochemistry through the University of California at Berkeley’s extension program, and currently assists part-time in a neural stem cell lab in the UCSF Department of Neurology. Mark and his family split the year living in California and Sweden. He speaks English, Swedish, and German, and is conversant in French, Spanish, and other European languages.
 
Read his LinkedIn profile.