News, Awards and Grants
Optofluidics, Inc. Shortlisted for Philadelphia Life Sciences Start-up of the Year
The Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT) has announced that Optofluidics, Inc. (a start-up spun out from the Erickson lab) is an Enterprise Award finalist for Philadelphia Life Sciences Start-up of the Year. The Enterprise Awards are the region's most prestigious business honors for technology and life sciences companies, leaders, and entrepreneurs. The award announcement can be seen from the PACT Enterprise Awards website.
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
Professor Erickson has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers (PECASE) award for his work with the Department of Energy. The White House press release referrers to this as "the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers". See also the second press release showing Professor Erickson and the other awardees meeting President Obama.
Mekala Krishnan completes her Ph.D. Studies!
Mekala Krishnan has passed her B-Exam and will be awarded his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering. Congratulations Mekala!
Aram Chung completes his Ph.D. Studies!
Aram Chung has passed his B-Exam and will be awarded his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering. Congratulations Aram!
Sean Moore completes his M.Sc. Studies!
Sean Moore has passed his Masters of Science exam and will be awarded his M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering. Congratulations Sean!
NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Awarded
Matthew Mancuso and Romy Fain have been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowships in the 2011 Competition. Li Jiang also received an honorable mention for his application. Congratulations!
New Start-up Company Formed
| A new start-up company, Optofluidics, Inc., has been co-founded by Professor Erickson and Dr. Bernardo Cordovez. The company is focused on developing optofluidic technology for single molecule instrumentation and molecular diagnostics. Operations began January 1st, 2011 in Philadelphia, PA with contracts from the NSF and DARPA and private venture investment. Further details are availiable from the company's website. |  |
Michael Kalontarov, Bernardo Cordovez and Erica Jung receive poster award at CCSF meeting
Congratulations to Mike K., Bernardo and Erica for their poster "Thousand-Fold Improvement in Photo-Bio-Reactors using Advanced Photonics" which won second place at the Sustainability at Cornell Poster Exhibit Competition. The project is a collaboration between the Erickson lab and the Angenent lab in BEE. They were awarded $3000 for their efforts. Forther details are availiable through the CCSF news release.
Mekala Krishnan and Matthew Mancuso given Awards at CNF Annual Meeting
Congradulations to Mekala Krishnan and Matt Mancuso who both won awards at the CNF annual meeting in September 2010. Mekala was awarded the best presentation award for her talk on “Optically Reconfigurable Microfluidics for Programmable Matter”. Matthew was awarded one of the best poster awards for his poster on "Nanoporous Polymer Ring Resonators".
Lab-on-a-Bird Grant Awarded
The Erickson lab in collaboration with Ephrahim Garcia (MAE), David Winkler (DEE) and Nancy Trautman (CCC) have been awarded a joint NSF grant to develop self-reliant microsystems for biophysical monitoring of birds. The project is funded through the Interdisciplinary Research program of the NSF and is joint between Cornell University and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Bernardo Cordovez completes his Ph.D. Studies!
In mid-August Bernardo Cordovez passed his B-Exam and will be awarded his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering. Congratulations Bernardo!
Allen Yang completes his Ph.D. Studies!
In mid-July Allen Yang passed his B-Exam and will be awarded his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering. Congratulations Allen!
Optofluidics at CLEO 2010
The Optofluidics track at CLEO grew again in 2010 with 35 oral talks including an invited keynote from Demetri Psaltis, selected from well over 60 submissions. Pictures from the event are posted on the optofluidics facebook page.
Photobio Reactor Grant Awarded
The Erickson lab in collaboration with Angenent Lab (CALS) and David Sinton (UVIC/Cornell MAE) have received an academic venture fund grant from the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future to pursue development of a new form of photonically enhanced bioreactors for solar energy production.
Single Protein Analysis NIH Grant Awarded
The Erickson lab in collaboration with Peng Cheng (Chemistry) have received an NIH grant to study weak protein-protein interactions using optically resonant nanotweezers.
NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Awarded
Michael Mak has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowships in the 2010 Competition. Congradulations!
Department of Energy Early Career Award
To support his work on directed assembly of nanoscale materials using optical forces in nanophotonic devices, Professor Erickson has been awarded a Department of Energy Early Career Award. The Department of Energy press release is availiable here.
Office of Naval Research Grant Awarded
With the support of the Office of Naval Research the Erickson lab will develop a series of autonomous microfluidic devices for battlefield health assessment and treatment.
Sudeep Mandal completes his Ph.D. Studies!
In mid-December Sudeep Mandal passed his B-Exam and will be awarded his Ph.D. degree in Applied Physics. Congratulations Sudeep!
Michael Kalontarov and Bernardo Cordovez win Grand Prize and First Prize at 2009 ASME Micro- and Nanotechnology Society-wide Forum
Michael Kalontarov and his co-author Mekala Krishnan were awarded the Grand Prize for his poster on "Fluid Dynamically Driven Assembly in 3D for Programmable Matter" and Bernardo Cordovez and his co-author Aram Chung were awarded the first prize for their work on "Chemically driven insect cyborg sentinels" at the IMECE Nanotechnology Society Wide Forum in Orlando, Florida. There were a total of 144 entries.
National Cancer Institute - Physical Sciences Oncology Center Grant Awarded
The Erickson Lab is part of a large team of researchers being supported by the new Cornell Center on the Microenvironment and Metastasis. A detailed press release about the grant is availiable here.
Mekala Krishnan Awarded CNF's 2009 Nellie Yeh-Poh Lin Whetten Memorial Award
Congradulations to Mekala Kirshnan who was awarded the Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Facilities "Nellie Yeh-Poh Lin Whetten Memorial Award" for 2009. The award is given to an outstanding female graduate student working at the CNF who displays the highest level of enthusiasm and commitment to professionalism. Mekala was given the award for her research on the development of microfluidic programmable matter, the excellent reviews she has received as a TA, and her extra-curricular work with Asha Cornell.
NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Awarded
Sean Moore and Casey Kraning have both been awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships in the 2009 Competition. Congradulations!
NSF CAREER Award
For his work on "Optofluidics - Fusing microfluidics and photonics" Professor Erickson has been awarded an NSF CAREER award.
Press releases and other coverage of "Optical Manipulation of Nanoparticles and Biomolecules in Subwavelength Slot Waveguides" Paper
A number of organizations put together stories and press releases related to this paper published in Nature. For more information see the following press releases from: National Science Foundation and Cornell University and related coverage from Science Daily, Lab-on-a-Chip , Analytical Chemistry News, Nature Methods News.
Chemistry world article on Insect Cyborgs
Chemistry world magazine has written an article detailing our work on insect cyborgs. The work is related to our paper "Engineering Insect Flight Metabolics using Immature Stage Implanted Microfluidics." Published in Lab-on-a-Chip.
Yun Suk Huh wins Grand Prize at ASME 3rd Micro- and Nanotechnology Society-wide Forum
Yun and his co-authors Aram Chung and Bernardo Cordovez were awarded the Grand Prize (1st out of over 160 entries) for the poster on their work "Optofluidic Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Chip for Detection of Dengue Virus" at the ASME 3rd Micro- and Nanotechnology Society-wide Forum at the IMECE conference in Boston. See this article from ASME news on-line.
Reconfigurable Photonics Grant Awarded
The Erickson lab in collaboration with Illuminaria LLC has received an AFOSR STTR grant on microfluidically reconfigurable photonics.
Connecting with Cornell Article.
See the write up on our Nanoscale Optofluidic Sensor Arrays featured in this year's Connecting with Cornell.
Photonics Spectra Article on Optofluidics
See our recent review on Optofluidics in the February 2008 issue of Photonics Spectra. Co-written with Changhuei Yang and Demetri Psaltis.
Programmable Matter Grant Awarded
The Erickson lab in collaboration with the Hod Lipson (PI) and Jaeger Lab (U. Chicago) labs has been awarded a DARPA Grant on programmable matter.
Sudeep Mandal's NBTC Talk availiable for download
Sudeep's recent NanoBioTechnology center talk on photonic crystals for optofluidics is availiable for download from the NBTC website.
If the video does not download properly you may have to cut and paste the following link into your realplayer in order to see it.
rtsp://specevents.video.cornell.edu/NBTC2008/NBTC_041508.rm
Samsung HumanTech Thesis Prize
Aram Chung has been awarded a 2008 Samsung HumanTech Silver Prize for his work on "Electrokinetic microfluidic devices for rapid, low power drug delivery in autonomous microsystems". Details of the award and his prize can be found the HumanTech website.
Erickson named associate editor of "Journal of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics"
Prof. Erickson has been named an associate editor of the Journal of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics. For information on the Journal please visit the website.
Erickson named associate editor of "Smart Materials and Structures"
Starting January 2008, Prof. Erickson will begin a 2 year term as associate editor of the Journal of Smart Materials and Structures. For information on the Journal please visit the website.
Best Presentation Award
Mekala Krishnan's presentation "Directed Hierarchical Self Assembly – Active Fluid Mechanics at the Micro and Nanoscales" was awarded the best presentation award at the ASME-IMECE Microfluidics 2007 Fluids Engineering in Micro- and Nanosystems. Congradulations!
Nanoscale Optofluidic Sensor Arrays featured in NBTC Newsletter
Our NBTC project in collaboration with Antje Baeumner and Michal Lipson is featured in the Winter 2007 NBTC newsletter. You can download a copy from here.
Special Issue on Optofluidics
The special issue on optofluidics edited by Prof. Erickson for the Journal of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics will be published as the final issue of 2007. The final list of
articles is provided below in alphabetical order.
- "Liquid-infiltrated photonic crystals: enhanced light-matter interactions for lab-on-a-chip applications" by Niels
Asger Mortensen, Sanshui Xiao and Jesper Pedersen
- "Nanobiosensors: optofluidic, electrical and mechanical approaches to biomolecular detection at the nanoscale" by David
Erickson, Sudeep Mandal, Allen H. J. Yang and Bernardo Cordovez
- "Nanohole arrays in metal films as optofluidic elements: progress and potential" by David Sinton, Reuven Gordon and
Alexandre G. Brolo
- "Optofluidic dye lasers" by Zhenyu Li and Demetri Psaltis
- "Optofluidic integration for microanalysis" by Hamish C. Hunt and James S. Wilkinson
- "Optofluidic waveguides: I. Concepts and implementations" by Holger Schmidt and Aaron R. Hawkins
- "Optofluidic waveguides: II. Fabrication and structures" by Aaron R. Hawkins and Holger Schmidt
- "Optofluidics: a novel generation of reconfigurable and adaptive compact architectures" by C. Monat, P. Domachuk, C.
Grillet, M. Collins, B. J. Eggleton, M. Cronin-Golomb, S. Mutzenich, T. Mahmud, G. Rosengarten and A. Mitchell
- "Optofluidics technology based on colloids and their assemblies" by Seung-Kon Lee, Shin-Hyun Kim, Ji-Hwan Kang, Sung-
Gyu Park, Won-Jong Jung, Se-Hoon Kim, Gi-Ra Yi and Seung-Man Yang
- "Tunable optofluidic devices" by Uriel Levy and Romi Shamai
Thanks to all the contributors!
NSF-NIRT Grant Awarded
The Erickson lab in collaboration with the Michal Lipson lab (Cornell) and the Krauss and Bren labs at the University of Rochester have been awarded an NSF Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team program on "Active Nanophotofluidic Systems for Single Molecule/Particle Analysis". This award provides $1,000,000 to support the teams effort over 4 years. Further information on the program is availiable through our NIRT website.
Best Poster Awards at CNF 30th Anniversary
Allen Yang and Aram Chung both won best poster awards at the Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Facilities (CNF) 30th anniversary symposium. Allen’s poster was on Optofluidic Transport and Aram’s was on his work on Insect Cyborg Sentinels.
NIH Grant Awarded
The Erickson lab in collaboration with the Baeumner labs has been awarded an NIH Grant to develop Optofluidic devices for Dengue virus RNA detection.
DARPA Young Faculty Award
Professor Erickson has been selected for the 2007 DARPA MTO Young Faculty Award. The award will support work on the development of Integrated Nanosystems for Autonomous Health Monitoring.
Nanobiotechnology Center Grant Awarded
The Erickson and Baeumner (bioengineering) Labs has been awarded an NBTC grant to develop "Nanoscale Optofluidic Devices for Biomolecular Analysis".
Nanomanufacturing Grant Awarded
The Lipson (PI) and Erickson (Co-PI) Labs has been awarded an NSF grant to develop "Actively Programmable Multi-level Fluidic Self-Assembly" which represents a new technique for Hierarchical Microfabrication.
SPIE Newsrooom article on Nanoscale Optofluidic Integration
Recently published SPIE Newsroom article on integrating nanophotonic devices with nanofluidics. Visit SPIE for more information.
Award for "Integrated Microfluidic Devices" paper
The article Integrated Microfluidic Devices published in 2004 is listed as one of Canada's Top 10 Hot Papers. See in-cites for information.
New Course: MAE 656 - Nanoscale Energy Transport and Conversion
Professor Erickson will offer a new course starting in the Spring 2006 term entitled MAE 656, Nanoscale Energy Transport and Conversion. Click here for more details.
Nanosensors Grant Awarded
The Erickson Lab has been awarded an NSF grant to develop nanoscale electro-active sensor devices in collaboration with Professor Sandra Troian at the California Institute of Technology.