Feb. 25, 2003 — Zyvex Corp. soon will be short a nanotechnology theorist, but interested applicants need not apply.

Nanotech pioneer Ralph Merkle will step down from that post this week at Zyvex, a Texas-based maker of tools and technologies for molecularly precise manufacturing. He plans to pursue independent consulting and speaking about nanotech, two of his main tasks since he joined Zyvex in 1999.

“We certainly haven’t cut off any ties with Ralph — he’s a very valuable resource,” said Katharine Green, a company spokeswoman. “Ralph’s shoes would be very hard to fill.”

Although Green said it was Merkle’s decision — he cited the difficulty of regular commutes between Texas and his California home — the company has been shifting its focus from theoretical concepts to product development. “For the first few years … we were in the theory stage,” she said. “That was the stage where you needed the visionaries.”

Merkle was winner of the 1998 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, sponsored by the Foresight Institute. He currently serves as Foresight’s vice president of technology assessment. Before Zyvex, Merkle worked as a research scientist at Xerox PARC.

Zyvex also named Richard Weitzel its sales director. Weitzel has held several management or executive positions with Thermo Electron Corp.