Control, sensing and chemical analysis using microfluidic devices
Presented by Mark A. Burns, University of Michigan
Monday, December 2, 2019
10–11 a.m.
Goldwater Center (GWC) 487, Tempe campus [map]
Abstract
This presentation will describe the near unlimited number of uses of microfluidic devices in chemical processing and sensing. Construction of these devices is currently relatively easy, and there are a large number of published “lab on a chip” systems constructed from a variety of substrates using different actuation, sensing and control components. Burns’ work focuses on components and integrated systems that can be used to measure physical, chemical, and biochemical properties.
The applications for these devices have ranged from disease diagnosis to pneumatic computing, and the construction complexity for each device can be very different. Burns will present results from these devices and discuss the successes and challenges his team has encountered. Burns will also present new areas of exploration.
About the speaker
Professor Mark A. Burns is the executive director of Mcubed and Research Innovation in the Office of the Vice President for Research, the T. C. Chang Professor of Engineering, and a professor in both chemical engineering and biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan. He joined Michigan in 1990 after teaching at the University of Massachusetts for four years. Burns obtained his master’s and doctoral degrees in chemical and biochemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Burns has over 300 publications, patents and presentations. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Institute for Chemical Engineers, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He has won numerous awards including the Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division Award from AIChE, and both a Teaching Excellence Award and a Research Excellence Award from the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. Burns is widely recognized as having developed the first integrated, microfluidic DNA analysis device, and that device is part of the National Science Museum’s permanent collection in London, England. On the administrative side, he is the executive director of the innovative seed-funding program at Michigan called Mcubed, a program that has distributed approximately $45 million in seed funding to faculty/student teams in all schools and colleges on all three campuses at Michigan. Those approximately 750 projects have generated over $130 million of external research funding and produced hundreds of publications and other scholarly works.
