Anis Rahman is known for his work on Dendrimer based photonics and terahertz technology. He Coined the term “silicon for photonics” and his approach makes it possible to fabricate chip based components from dendrimer for sensing and terahertz generation. He proposed a new mechanism, dendrimer dipole excitation, that generated continuous wave terahertz over a broad spectrum. Under his leadership, dendrimer technology received prestigious awards including the NASA Nanotech Brief’s nano-50 award and CLEO/Laser Focus World’s Innovation award (2011). He completed MS & PhD at Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI) and a postdoctoral research position at Columbia University (NY).

Anis Rahman research expertise includes photonic waveguide gratings, DWDMs, chip-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs), photonics design, simulation, characterization, and packaging; dendrimers; laser-evaporated direct-write of microelectronic components; and thick- and thin-films.

Thu-Hoa Tran-Thi received her PhD degree in radiation chemistry in 1983 at the University of Paris XI in Orsay. Since 1982, she has been a researcher of the CNRS (National Council of Scientific Research) at CEA (Atomic Energy Commission, Saclay), and is currently CNRS Director of Research. During 1982-97, her research interests included the photophysical and photoreactivity of porphyrins and phthalocyanines compounds, photochemical reactions in solution, amorphous solid state systems and organized media using fast and ultrafast laser spectroscopy techniques. In 1989, as an invited scientist at the University of Sherbooke in Quebec, she developed collaborative projects with physicists, theoretical chemists and biologists, and from 1990 to 2000 was Adjunct Professor. From 2000 to 2006, she was vice-president and president of the French Group of Photochemistry. Since 1998, she has also developed chemical sensors of air pollutants. In 2010, she co-founded the start-up ETHERA (www.ethera-labs.com) and in recognition for her research, was named to the French Legion of Honneur.She presently leads the “Chemical Sensors”team in the CEA-CNRS NIMBE unit and is also the scientific counsellor of ETHERA.She has directed 88 students including 16 PhD students and 28 postdoctoral fellows. She has published 90 articles and has 11 patents.

Gas sensors for Environment and Health, colorimetric sensors, indoor air quality, bacteria detection, gas filters, breath analysis.

Yanbin Li is a co-founder of BioDetection Instruments. He is one of the leading experts in biosensors for rapid detection of foodborne pathogens. He has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from Penn State, and is a Professor and Tyson Endowed Chair in Biosensing Engineering at the University of Arkansas. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Biosensors and bioinstrumentation, Microbial and chemical predictive modeling, Quantitative risk assessment and simulation, Food safety and food system engineering

Prabir Patra is currently an associate professor and a chair in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at University of Bridgeport, USA. From 2008-2012, he worked as a Research scientist at Rice University, USA. His research is to understand the fundamentals of biophysical science processes at a nano-scale and apply their underlying principles to develop hybrid material structure, properties, and arrangement through growth and modification for novel biomedical engineering applications. Keeping this as the central theme, his research is directed toward two major areas. The first area involves continued research efforts on polymer nanomaterials that emphasize creativity and collaboration in developing a new understanding on fundamentals and technology of multifunctional polymer nanocomposite materials and biologically inspired nanomaterials. The second area involves ranges of biomaterials and tissue engineered structures using extensive experience in synthesis-structure-property-function relationships. In essence, his group focuses on the application of evolving nanotechnologies in health and health-based devices, diagnostic tools, and sensing for improving the quality of human life.

Biophysical science processes, hybrid material structure, novel biomedical engineering applications, polymer nano materials, multifunctional polymer nano composite materials, biologically inspired nano materials, biomaterials, tissue engineered structures, synthesis-structure-property-function relationships, application of evolving nanotechnologies in health and health-based devices

Curtis received her B.S. in Biochemistry/Biophysics from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and participated in the In Vitro Cell Biology and Biotechnology Program at the William H. Miner Institute in New York. She subsequently received a PhD in Physiology and Cell Biology from Albany Medical College, and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University Of Virginia School Of Medicine in Charlottesville. During this training, she gained expertise in cellular interactions with the extracellular matrix in both in vitro and in vivo models that she has used to develop her research program in the development of field portable cell-based biosensors. She has six years of experience in the biotechnology sector and is now an Associate Professor at SUNY Cortland, where she has been PI for projects funded through the Department of Defense, including the development of cell-based biosensors for the detection of environmental toxicants in air and water, high-throughput wound healing assay for drug screening, and an antibody-based infectious disease diagnostic for field detection of Leishmania parasites.

Curtis gained expertise in cellular interactions with the extracellular matrix in both in vitro and in vivo models that she has used to develop her research program in the development of field portable cell-based biosensors. She has six years of experience in the biotechnology sector including the development of cell-based biosensors for the detection of environmental toxicants in air and water, high-throughput wound healing assay for drug screening, and an antibody-based infectious disease diagnostic for field detection of Leishmania parasites.

Li-Qun Gu, an Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Missouri, is leading an interdisciplinary laboratory that has a long term vision: integrating biomolecular engineering with nanobiotechnology to explore life science problems and to develop sophisticated molecular diagnostic tools for personalized medicine. He received the NSF CAREER award the NIH grant to develop ultrasensitive single-molecule technology for disease biomarker detection. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in high tier journals including Nature, Nature Nanotechnology, Science and PNAS. The nanopore-nanosensor he developed can detect circulating microRNAs in cancer patient plasma, offering a non-invasive approach to screening and disease diagnose.

Tracking cellular components, probing biochemical reaction, investigating bio-transportation, protein-ligand recognition, special properties of designed biopolymers, detecting pharmaceuticals and pathogen traces. The Nanopore-based single molecule detection could also play important role in proteomics and genomics.

Mahmoud Almasri is an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Missouri. Almasri’s research and published materials include uncooled infrared microblometers, micromirrors, Coulter counter, micropost array for mapping cell traction forces, wafer level packaging and three-dimensional microscaffolds for brain slice and neuronal network studies in vitro and in situ.

Microelectromechanical systems, Biomedical microsystems, Microfabrication

Yongji Fu is currently Director of Innovation at Hill-Rom where he is leading technical development in the Early Innovation team. Prior to joining Hill-Rom he was a technical manager with Becton Dickinson (BD) where He led the development of smart wearable devices including the continuous glucose monitor and artificial pancreas. Prior to joining BD, he worked at Sharp Labs of America, Siemens Medical Solutions and Welch Allyn Medical Monitoring System. He has numerous pending/issued patents and papers in biomedical sensing and algorithm development. He is a senior member of IEEE and served as a member of several conference technical committees. Yongji Fu received his B.S degree in 1999 and M.S degree in 2002 from Tsinghua University, China and PhD degree in 2008 from Oregon Health and Science University, US; all three degrees are in biomedical engineering.

Medical sensing technologies, Signal processing algorithm, Machine learning, Information driven treatment and therapy, Pervasive computing

Baohua Jia received her BSc and MSc degrees from Nankai University, China in 2000 and 2003 respectively. She was awarded a PhD in optics in 2007 from Swinburne University of Technology. Baohua has been working as a Project Manager/Project Leader for the Centre for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS, an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence) from 2006-13 managing the key flagship projects 3D bandgap confinement and Nanoplasmonic. Since 2010, Baohua has also been a Senior Research Fellow investigating the cutting-edge nanotechnology of solar cells. Her recent research findings have been highlighted in the MIT Technology Review with more than 150 media reports worldwide. Baohua has co-authored more than 160 publications in highly ranked journals and prestigious international conferences including Nature Photonics, Advanced Materials, Nano Letters, Optics Letters, Optics Express and Applied Physics Letter.

Baohua Jia research is focused on laser nanofabrication of novel photonic nanostructures, investigation of functionality and nonlinear effects inside 3D photonic nanostructures, development of active photonic devices facilitated with quantum dots, development of novel nanoplasmonic devices with laser nanofabrication, and employment of nanostructures and nanomaterials for solar energy related research.

Palash Gangopadhyay is a Materials scientist and chemical physicist, specialized in optics, nanomaterials, development of analytical techniques and energy storage applications. Accomplished record of success with: 65 published papers, over 15 presentations at international conferences, 7 patents. Currently training for Six Sigma Black Belt.

Nanomaterials - synthesis and characterization | FTIR | Raman Spectroscopy | Electrochemistry | Lithium ion battery | Lithium ion hybrid supercapacitors | Supercapacitors | Prototyping | Ab-initio computation | GAMESS | GAUSSIAN | Materials Studio | MOPAC | LAMMPS | COMSOL | Lumerical FDTD | MATLAB | Optical Microscopy | Raman Microscopy | AFM | Scanning Probe Microscopy | Transmission Electron Microscopy | Scanning Electron Microscopy| Photon and Electron Induced Processes | Optical Metrology | Ellipsometry | Surface Profiler | Polarization tools and instrumentation | Fiber optic sensor | Magneto Optics | Magnetic materials | Fiber optic magnetic field sensor | Fiber optic magnetocardiography (FOMCG) | Fiber optic magnetoencephalography (FOMEG) | Magneto-optical | Thin films | Biomedical sensing | Nanotechnology | Materials chemistry| Semiconducting polymers | Organic materials | Organic electronics | Carbon nanomaterials | Nanostructured transparent conducting electrodes | Nanoimprinting | Spin on nanoprinting |