Dr. Eisler's general research interests lie in the history of science-based innovation, especially post-1945, and include the economy, culture, and lexicology of research and development, the symbolic, rhetorical, and dramaturgical applications of science and technology, and the relationship between technoscience, consumerism, and the environment, particularly in the energy and transportation sectors. Dr. Eisler's research at CNS-UCSB explores these themes in an analysis of the ways nanotechnology has been constructed as theory, discourse, and technoscientific practice as this relates to the energy sector. He focuses on the Department of Energy's role in the National Nanotechnology Initiative and the mutual shaping in programmatic, organizational, and epistemic terms that occurred between this enterprise and other high-profile federally-funded power/energy R&D projects that preceded and followed it including electrochemical energy conversion, photovoltaic power, and assorted hydrogen technologies.