The scientific field of (compound) semiconductor nanowires got started seriously in the US and in Europe about 15 years ago, some ten years after the original break-through research conducted by Dr. Kenji Hiruma and his team at Hitachi in Japan.

Our own early work was initially very much exploratory research, testing to what extent we could understand, control and have fun with the ways in which nanowires nucleate and grow. The whole field of nanowires saw great progress in the use of nanowires for physics and for fairly simple model devices. Just in the last five, or so, years we have seen serious break-through in novel growth methods and the understanding of nanowire growth, as well as in the development of new technologies enabling efficient fabrication of nanowires for areas like solar cells and light-emitting diodes.

In this talk I will cover all these areas, with an emphasis on recent progress in controlled and efficient fabrication of nanowires for energy applications.