David A. Weitz, Ph.D. is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics, Harvard University, from 1999 to the present, and the Director of the Harvard Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, from 2001 to the present.
Major research accomplishments include, i) developed Diffusing-Wave Spectroscopy, extending dynamic light scattering to strongly scattering media, and exploited it for novel studies of colloids, foams and emulsions, ii) developed new light-scattering technique for measuring rheological properties of complex fluids and applied it to biomaterials, polymers, colloidal suspensions and emulsions, iii) developed Diffusing Acoustic Wave Spectroscopy to study solid particle dynamics in fluids, iv) discovered novel colloidal interactions in anisotropic fluids with emulsions in liquid crystals, v) showed that the structure of colloidal aggregates is fractal and applied scaling analysis to significantly advance our understanding of the classic problem of colloid aggregation vi) developed general model for surface-plasmon enhancement of Raman, resonance Raman, fluorescence and resonance fluorescence from molecules adsorbed at rough metal surfaces, vii) developed new model for cause of viscous fingering in porous media and determined effects of wetting on fingering properties, viii) performed several experiments in space with NASA support to study basic colloid physics.
Honors And Awards include Bayer Distinguished Lecture, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, U. Pittsburgh; Sir Eric Rideal Lecture, Faraday Discussions 123, Edinburgh, Scotland, Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Andrew Griffiths, Ph.D. received a B.Sc. in Biochemistry (Special Honours, 1st Class and winner of Krebs Prize for Biochemistry) from the University of Sheffield in 1985. He received his Ph.D. degree, on the subject of messenger RNA splicing, from the University of Leicester, UK, in 1988.
Dr. Griffith has over 15 years of experience in selection and directed evolution of proteins. He was a central figure in the development of phage display for the selection of human antibodies for therapy while working with Sir Greg Winter at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, first as a post doc. (1989-1990) and later as a Cancer Research Campaign Fellow (1991-1995).
Andrew Griffiths is an inventor on 19 granted US patents on phage display. From 1995 to 2005, he worked as a Senior Scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge. Together with Dr. Dan Tawfik, he developed a novel technique for selection and directed evolution of both nucleic acids and proteins which allows direct selection for catalysis as well as for binding. This system is unique in that it is based on linking genotype to phenotype, not by compartmentalization of genes in cells as in nature, but on in vitro compartmentalization (IVC) of genes in aqueous microdroplets in water-in-oil emulsions. Recently he joined the Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS), Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France.
Darren R. Link, Ph.D. holds a B.Sci. degree in Physics from Montana State University (Bozeman, MT), and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Colorado (Boulder, CO).
He is Senior Vice President of Research & Development at RainDance Technologies, Inc. He is responsible for all aspects of design and development of microfluidic devices for nanoreactor technology. Prior to RDT, he spent two years at Harvard University as a postdoctoral scientist studying soft materials physics in the department of physics and division of engineering and applied sciences. Previous to joining the group at Harvard, Dr. Link spent two years at Tokyo Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral scientist studying liquid crystalline materials. He has co-authored more than 35 peer-reviewed articles and 8 patent applications.
Jerome Bibette, Ph.D. is a Professor at Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles de la ville de Paris, (ESPCI), from 2001-present, and the Director of the Colloids and Divided Materials Laboratory in ESPCI. He founded this new laboratory in 2001. Major research accomplishments include, i) invented the first route to prepare Brownian monodisperse emulsions, ii) and from these new colloids demonstrated various important interaction and phase transition mechanisms in colloidal science, iii) invented and develop the first technique to directly probe force distance profiles between colloidal particles, iv) developed a general understanding of metastability and coalescence of emulsions, v) developed tools for production as well as a general understanding of controlled emulsification by shear, and applied it to double emulsion and magnetic emulsion large scale preparation.
From this Jerome Bibette founded Ademtech in 2000, a biotech company specializing in the preparation of magnetic particles for diagnosis and molecular biology, vi) developed new magnetic colloids from emulsion and invented new techniques based on self assembling of these particles for DNA separation in microfluidic and ultra rapid proteins detection, vii) developed new techniques to probe single biocomplex elasticity and recognition rate, and evidenced the first micoscopic swimming device from these structures. Honors and awards include Member of Institut Universitaire de France, and the Silver Medal of CNRS in Chemistry.
Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, Ph.D. was born in 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut. He earned a B.S. in chemical engineering with an option in Biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.S., M.Phil, and Ph.D. in biology from Yale University.
Dr. Rothberg was the first person to sequence an individual human genome (Dr. Rothberg selected the genome of Dr. Jim Watson for this historic event), and initiated the age of the personal genomics. Dr. Rothberg is the founder of CuraGen Corporation, 454 Life Sciences, Clarifi Corporation, The Rothberg Institute for Childhood Diseases, and the co-founder and Chairman of RainDance Technologies.
Dr. Rothberg was named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year and is the receipt of The Wall Street Journal’s Gold Medal for Innovation for his invention of 454 sequencing, and The Irvington Institute’s Corporate Leadership Award in Science. Dr. Rothberg has appeared on CNBC for his pioneering work in the field of genomics medicine and his scientific work has been featured on the covers of leading scientific journals including Cell, Science, and Nature. While at CuraGen Dr. Rothberg developed a series of new medicines, now in over 14 human clinical trials, for the treatment of a wide range of cancers. Dr. Rothberg’s invention of a new way to sequence DNA on a chip – 454 Sequencing, first motivated by his son’s visit to the emergency room, has ushered in the era of personal medicine, and is now in use at major pharmaceutical companies, universities, genome centers, and medical centers around the world. Most recently Dr. Rothberg completed the first sequence of an individual human being (James D. Watson) and initiated the Neanderthal Genome project. Dr Rothberg was invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland as a technology Pioneer. Dr. Rothberg is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and serves on the board of trustees of Carnegie Mellon University.
