While Feynman is often credited as a visionary who foreshadowed the field, he didn't actually discover or invent it. In his famous 1959 lecture, "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom", he discussed the potential for manipulating matter at the atomic scale, but this was primarily a thought experiment and a conceptual challenge.

Here's a breakdown:

* Feynman's contribution: He envisioned the possibilities of manipulating matter at the atomic level, suggesting a future where we could build machines and materials atom by atom. His lecture inspired many scientists to pursue this field.

* Nanotechnology's development: The actual development of nanotechnology as a field started much later in the 1980s, with breakthroughs like the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) which enabled scientists to visualize and manipulate individual atoms.

* No single discoverer: Nanotechnology, like many scientific fields, evolved over time with contributions from many researchers. It's not attributed to a single person.

In summary, while Feynman's lecture is considered a landmark in the history of nanotechnology, he did not discover it. He was a visionary who sparked interest in the field, paving the way for its development.