William H. Fissell received the S.B. degree in physics and electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the M.D. degree. He is currently an Associate Professor with the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). He has pioneered the application of silicon nanotechnology to hemodialysis and hemofiltration. He has served as the Director of the Renal Nanotechnology Laboratory and the Innovations Center for Extracorporeal Therapy, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA. He serves as the Medical Director of The Kidney Project. He sees patients with kidney disease in his clinic at VUMC. He went on to apply his engineering training to treatment of patients with kidney disease first at Case Western Reserve University, the University Hospitals of Cleveland, and the Louis B. Stokes Cleveland Veteran’s Administration Hospital, where he completed medical school and residency. He moved to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, for his fellowship in nephrology, where he trained with H. David Humes, M.D., pioneer of the first bioartificial kidney used in clinical trials. He remained at the University of Michigan for his first two faculty appointments before moving to the Cleveland Clinic in 2007, and then to VUMC in 2012.