College of Engineering Spring 2023 Seminar Series: Dr. Hugh Fan

Title: Microfluidics and Integrated Engineering Solutions

Abstract: Microfluidics is a field that promises to reach the holy grail of "lab-on-a-chip". In analogy to shrinking a computer from the size of a room in the 1950s to a laptop today, instruments for chemical and biological analyses may be miniaturized into microfluidic devices using modern microfabrication technology. Potential applications of the portable, miniaturized devices include point-of-care testing, environmental monitoring, and detection of pathogens in the field. In this presentation, a brief introduction on microfluidics will be given, followed by the development of integrated engineering solutions towards real-world challenges: (1) detection of mosquito-borne virus (e.g., Zika) and airborne virus (e.g., SARS-CoV-2) at the point of care; (2) monitoring cancer treatment response or resistance using liquid biopsy; (3) fabrication of flexible/stretchable electronics.

Bio: Dr. Z. Hugh Fan is a Professor of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Department of Chemistry at the University of Florida (UF), Gainesville, FL.  He is the Director of Interdisciplinary Microsystems Group (IMG), which is a multi-departmental, education and research program led by 10 faculty members.  Prior to joining UF in 2003, Dr. Fan was a Principal Scientist at ACLARA BioSciences Inc. from 2000 to 2003 and a Member of the Technical Staff at Sarnoff Corp from 1995 to 2000. His research interests include microfluidics, BioMEMS, sensors, cancer prognosis, and pathogen detection.  Dr. Fan has authored >110 journal articles with more than 14,000 citations.  In addition, he edited one book and authored >70 book chapters and referred proceeding articles.  Dr. Fan’s research efforts have been recognized by Fraunhofer-Bessel Award from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), E.T.S. Walton Award from Science Foundation Ireland, and Career Award from National Institutes of Health (USA).  He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).  Dr. Fan serves as an associate editor of Microsystems & Nanoengineering (Nature Publishing Group), and an editorial board member of Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group) and Biosensors (MDPI)

When 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm on Monday, February 27, 2023
Location ENG 245, 110 Cummington Mall