Pankaj Dhingra Appointed as Nanostellar, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer

MENLO PARK, Calif.--Jan. 1, 20069, 2006--Nanostellar, Inc., an Application Specific Nano Materials company and developer of highly efficient nano-alloy based automotive catalyst solutions, today announced the appointment of Pankaj Dhingra as its President and Chief Executive Officer.

"The Board of Directors is very pleased with Pankaj's decision to join Nanostellar as we progress through product development and commercialization of our rational nano-material design technology," said William F. Miller, Chairman and Founder of Nanostellar. "We had a fantastic pool of candidates and are confident that Pankaj will be an excellent addition to our team. He has a superb background in the automotive industry and brings a perfect perspective for Nanostellar's success."

Pankaj has more than 25 years of experience, including managing a technology startup and a $650 million global automotive components business. His functional experience spans finance, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, sales and marketing with Delphi, General Motors and Unisys. During his tenure at Delphi, he managed the company's automotive battery business and delivered substantial revenue and profit growth. Prior to joining Nanostellar Pankaj served as President of Ener1, Inc.'s Energy Division, an alternative energy technologies company.

"Nanostellar is an exciting company, developing technology that allows us to design nano-materials with the exact properties required for any application," said Pankaj Dhingra. "This technology uses quantum mechanics principles and sophisticated computational models to construct molecular and crystalline structures for nano-materials and alloys. I am humbled and excited to be part of a high-powered team of PhDs that is developing this revolutionary technology."

Founded in 2003 with scientists from Stanford University and NASA Ames, Nanostellar is an application specific nano materials company that has developed a model-based rational design methodology. Its first application uses a patent-pending nano-alloy to improve the performance of automotive catalysts while reducing their precious metal content.

Nanostellar is privately held, backed by premier investors including 3i, Monitor Ventures, Firelake Capital Management LLC and AsiaTech Management.

About Nanostellar

Nanostellar, Inc., is a Menlo Park-based Application Specific Nano Materials company that uses quantum mechanics principles and sophisticated simulation technology to design nano-alloys and materials. This process dramatically reduces the material design cycle time as most of the material design is accomplished computationally. In other words, Nanostellar technology transforms the conventional "make and test" model of material design to "design, selectively make and verify." For more information, please visit the Nanostellar web site at www.nanostellar.com.