Donald Fitzmaurice is an Associate Director at ePlanet Ventures, a global Venture Capital firm. Professor Fitzmaurice is the Professor of Nanochemistry at University College Dublin. With over one hundred and fifty publications and patents to his name, he is established as a leading researcher in the field of nanochemistry. Recently, he was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy and was awarded the Boyle-Higgins medal. Donald founded a number of start-ups to exploit his research including NTera, an innovative display company, and TopChem, a company developing specialised process technology to the pharmaceutical sector. Currently, Donald is serving his third term as a member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council, the body responsible for advising the Irish national government on scientific developments. He graduated from University College Dublin in 1988 with a PhD in chemistry. Professor Fitzmaurice was a Research Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley from 1988 to 1990 and at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne during 1991. After returning to University College Dublin as a Lecturer in Chemistry he was appointed Professor of Nanochemistry in 1999. Professor Fitzmaurice was awarded a Newman Fellowship in 1991 and the Johnston-Stoney Medal in 2002.