Vernon Vandersheldon

Vernon Vandersheldon was a noted nanotechnologist, working at the CCAD, until he was fired and publicly blackballed for unethical human experimentation. This experimentation led to Marfa Washington getting her powers, in addition to some other less savory outcomes.

Since then he managed to stay out of jail by taking a plea deal that included giving up his lab and agreeing not to pursue research. He has opened his grandfather's Italian restaurant Berlusconi's and has a meager apartment in Reverb Park.

Secretly he has created a lab behind the laundry room of his apartment building, and does experimentation down there. This was discovered by The Profiteer and he was blackmailed into collecting Professor Flam's artificial hero schematics as payment for his secret being kept.