Irfan S. Ahmad
Associate Director, University of Illinois Center for Nanoscale
Science and Technology, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Irfan S. Ahmad received B.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering from
the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, in 1980; the
MS and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Engineering from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), IL in
1997.
Dr. Ahmad is currently Associate Director at the University of
Illinois Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology. He is
working at the confluence of bio- and nano technologies, with
research and development of biosensors for agriculture, food, and
medical applications. He also spearheads cross campus
multidisciplinary research, industry and government linkages, and
research forums.
Dr. Ahmad is also the Project Coordinator for the NCI-funded
Siteman Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, co-located at
the University of Illinois
Dr. Ahmad was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department
of Agricultural Engineering, UIUC from 1997 until 2000. His
teaching experience involves courses and lectures on Machine
Vision, Machine Characteristics and Mechanisms, Technology
Transfer, and Engineering Ethics. Since early 2001, Dr. Ahmad
has also been an entrepreneur with two start-ups, which were
located at the Enterprise Works, University of Illinois South
Research Park in Champaign, Illinois. He has consulted as
research applications engineer integrating sensing, information and
wireless technologies, and geographic information systems (GIS) for
commercial applications in Precision Agriculture and Remote
Sensing.
Dr. Ahmad's research interests have involved multi- and hyper
spectral imaging, vision and soil sensors, and wireless networks
for agricultural applications. His recent interests include
GIS for business applications, devising advanced collaborative
environments, and issues pertaining to technology usage and
ethics.
Dr. Ahmad has been Chair of Machine Vision Committee of Information
and Emerging Technologies Division, American Society of Agricultural
Engineers. He has regularly chaired technical sessions in
the area of Image Processing and Precision Agriculture. He
has been invited to speak at the Oak Ridge National Lab. and
University of Sharjah. He also serves on Agriculture and Food
Security subcommittee of Champaign County Economic Development
Corporation, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity.
Dr. Ahmad has published numerous research articles and has made
presentations at international conferences and workshops, and other
outreach fora. He has also been a reviewer for various
international publications and grants-awarding
agencies.
Dr. Ahmad has been a consultant to various internationally-funded
projects pertaining to agricultural machinery, energy conservation,
and technology transfer issues; involving German Technical
Assistance (GTZ), Haggler Bailly, Inc., Swiss Development
Cooperation, and United States Agency for International
Development, and Fiat Trattori. top
Hardik Bhatt
Chief Information Officer, City of Chicago
Mr. Hardik Bhatt's appointment as the Chief Information Officer
(CIO) was announced by Mayor Richard M Daley in February 2006. Mr.
Bhatt is also the Commissioner for the Department of Innovation
& Technology, the City's primary technology planning,
implementation and maintenance organization. As the Chief
Information Officer and the Commissioner of the Department of
Innovation and Technology (DoIT), Mr. Bhatt's role is protect
City's existing investment in Information Technology while
identifying and implementing new and innovative technology
solutions that deliver efficiencies in service to the citizens of
the City of Chicago.
Specifically, Mr. Bhatt strives to implement Mayor Daley's
vision of a city government that benefits from an assimilation of
best practices from both the public sector and the private industry
by raising the level of service provided to citizens, businesses
and tourists. As the CIO of the City of Chicago, Mr. Bhatt oversees
several Technology Implementations, Mobile Solutions and
Information Sharing projects. This primarily includes improvements
in collection and sharing of information across various City
agencies and dissemination within agencies and to the general
public. Also of high priority are streamlining City's various
business processes to attract qualified firms to partner with the
City, integration of various enterprise systems such as for
Revenue, Finance and Procurement, Human Resources, Inspection and
Permitting, and Customer Service Requests. He is also
responsible for implementing a Geographic Information Services
(GIS) that provides digital maps, photographs and up-to-date data
on all property City-wide. Furthermore, Mr. Bhatt 's objective will
be to make as many services available as possible to the
public via the City's web site, and continue to evaluate
options for city-wide wireless broadband connectivity.
In addition, Bhatt oversees the maintenance, upkeep and
performance of the City's Information technology assets comprising
10,000+ personal computers, a wide area network and telecom lines
that encompass more than 100 City offices and locations.
Prior to taking charge of DoIT, Mr. Bhatt was working as a
Deputy Director in City's newly formed Traffic Management Authority
at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, where he
was responsible for innovative planning and technological solutions
to mitigate traffic congestion in the City of Chicago. Prior to
that, Mr. Bhatt managed Software Development at the Chicago Police
Department, where he led the development of ICLEAR (Illinois
Citizens and Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting) system. Before
joining the city government in 2003, Mr. Bhatt has worked for
private sector companies for 10 years, including at Oracle
Corporation and Tata Consultancy Services (India) as a technology
consultant.
Mr. Bhatt received an Executive MBA in 2005 from the J.L.
Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University
and a Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Computer Science from
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. top
Kenneth Bradley
Venture Partner, ARCH Venture Partners
Ken Bradley, Ph.D. is a Venture Partner at ARCH Venture Partners
joining the firm in January 2008. Dr. Bradley has a rich background
in discovering and developing nascent technologies and is
supporting ARCH's life and physical sciences teams with a special
focus on micro- and nanotechnologies.
Dr. Bradley most recently served as CEO of Arryx, a start-up
company commercializing Holographic Optical Trapping technology for
laser-based micro- and nano-scopic instrumentation in the life
sciences sector. Arryx was acquired in 2007 by Haemonetics, a $2
billion firm headquartered in Massachusetts and developing blood
management technologies that are key components of collection,
surgery and transfusion services. Dr. Bradley continues to serve as
Vice President of Development for Haemonetics.
Previously, Dr. Bradley founded and served as President of
Phoenician Market Places, Inc., a technology innovation consultancy
that fostered start-up companies by connecting laboratory advances
with market opportunities. The consultancy's specialization
included technology developed in academic and government research
facilities and in early-stage commercial environments where there
is large uncertainty in choosing optimum development paths.
Dr. Bradley began his career as an associate of
Schlumberger-Doll Research and as a NATO Traveling Scholar. After
obtaining his Ph.D. in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics, he
conducted research at MIT as a post-doctoral fellow and then served
as a visiting scholar at Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Bradley
was an early member of the scientific staff at Nanophase
Technologies, a nano-materials firm and an ARCH Venture Fund I and
II portfolio company. He also held business development and general
management roles in financial and data publishing.
Dr. Bradley received his post-doctoral training at MIT. He holds
a Ph.D. in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics from Brown
University and a B.A. in Physics from Cornell University. top
Clark V. Cooper, PhD
Program Director, Materials and Surface Engineering,
National Science Foundation
Clark Cooper is Director of the Materials and Surface
Engineering program at the National Science Foundation, a position
that he has held since February 2006. At NSF, he has been
active in championing a new focus on Simulation-Based Engineering
and Science, including leadership in the planning and execution of
a two-continent study and a strategic directions workshop.
Prior to his commencement at NSF in early 2006, he was a Principal
Scientist at United Technologies Research Center in Connecticut,
where he pursued fundamental and applied research in the general
area of surface science and engineering, focusing on the use of
various physical (PVD) and chemical (CVD) vapor deposition
processes to synthesize hard and protective coatings and the
application of thermo-chemical processes to improve the properties
of the surfaces of engineering materials. He and his
colleagues have demonstrated the effectiveness of these and other
surface modification techniques, including high intensity plasma
ion processing (HIPIP), to impart remarkable improvements in
hardness and wear and corrosion resistance of engineering alloys
and in the surface and bending fatigue durability of power
transmission gears. He and his collaborators demonstrated the
successful application of first-principles modeling, especially at
the atomistic level, to understand and design more effective
additive compounds for synthetic lubricants and developed novel
approaches to integrate length and time scales for innovative
multi-scale models. In addition, he has contributed to
advancements in the understanding and to improvements in the
properties of materials and coatings for use at high temperature
and in other extreme environments. Cooper holds a B.S. from
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in Materials
Science and Engineering from Northwestern University top
Bret Johnson
Director, Homeland Security Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center,
Northwestern University
Bret is responsible for managing HSIEC services, creating
partnerships and generating programming for the center in
conjunction with the Illinois entrepreneurial community, and
leading business and market intelligence initiatives for the
center.
Bret helped launch Illinois' first Illinois Technology Enterprise
Center at Northwestern University (ITEC-Evanston) and served as
assistant director from 2000 to 2005. Bret provided strategic
guidance and technology commercialization assistance to companies
in the areas of advanced materials, communications, software and
engineering related technologies.
Bret previously held engineering and project management positions
at 3COM, Northrop-Grumman, GE and Grayhill. He received an MA in
Science, Technology and Public Policy from The George Washington
University, an MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford
University, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute. top
Neil Kane
President, Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc.
Mr. Kane is the former Executive Director of the Illinois
Technology Enterprise Center at Argonne National Laboratory and
Entrepreneur in Residence with Illinois Ventures, LLC. As EIR, Mr.
Kane was interim CEO of several of their portfolio companies. He
has closed several rounds of venture capital from various sources
and has secured numerous SBIR and government contracts and awards.
As a consultant he has evaluated the commercial potential of
advanced technologies for The University of Chicago, Argonne
National Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Mr. Kane was named a 2007 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic
Forum.
Earlier he was Regional Business Development Manager for Microsoft
Corporation in Chicago. In this role he identified, negotiated and
closed a $25 million equity investment in an Illinois-based
software company. He spoke publicly as an evangelist for Microsoft
on dozens of occasions.
He began his business career at IBM where he held a series of
marketing and technical positions. In his last position, he was a
Business Consultant focused on furthering the technology
penetration of IBM products at several major accounts in the
process and consumer packaged goods industries. Before that, he was
the IBM liaison to Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and helped
create the strategic business alliance between IBM and Andersen
Consulting that became the model for the industry. In this capacity
he earned membership into IBM's Golden Circle. He began his career
as a manufacturing engineer in IBM's San Jose, California disk
drive facility where he designed robotic tooling.
Neil holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (high honors)
and a Masters of Business Administration (finance and policy
studies) from The University of Chicago. He has attended graduate
school in Australia and attended a post-graduate international
management program in Japan on scholarship from JETRO. top
U.S. Representative Daniel
Lipinski (IL-03)
Chairman, House Science and Technology Committee's
Subcommittee on Research and Science Education
Congressman Dan Lipinski is a proud native and Representative of
Illinois' Third Congressional District. The district includes
large parts of south and southwest Chicago, as well as several
suburban communities in west and southwest Cook County. All
of these neighborhoods and the families who call them home make the
Third District one of the most diverse and vibrant areas in the
entire country.
As a skilled legislator, Congressman Lipinski has fought tirelessly
for the residents of the district, as well as all Americans-leading
the way in improving our nation's schools, making the healthcare
system more accessible and transparent, strengthening Social
Security and Medicare, protecting the American worker, improving
our nation's transportation and infrastructure, and ensuring our
families' safety and security.
To advance the interests of the Third District, Congressman
Lipinski is a member of three House Committees: Transportation and
Infrastructure, Science and Technology, and Small Business.
As a member of the House Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure, Congressman Lipinski serves on the Subcommittee on
Aviation, the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, and the
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous
Materials. In the Committee on Science and Technology,
Congressman Lipinski is Chair of the Subcommittee on Research and
Science Education and the Subcommittee on Energy and
Environment. As a member of the House Committee Small
Business, Congressman Lipinski belongs to the Subcommittee on
Regulations, Healthcare and Trade.
Prior to his election to the House of Representatives, Congressman
Lipinski taught Political Science at the University of Tennessee
and at the University of Notre Dame. Congressman Dan Lipinski
earned a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from
Northwestern University, a Master's Degree in Engineering-Economic
Systems from Stanford University, and a PhD in Political Science
from Duke University.
Congressman Lipinski and his wife, Judy, currently reside in
Western Springs, IL. top
Dr. Derrick Mancini
Associate Division Director for Facilities and Technology
& Acting Group Leader for Nanofabrication & Devices,
Argonne National Laboratory
Dr. Derrick C. Mancini is the Associate Director for Facilities and
Technology of the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) at Argonne
National Laboratory. He is also the leader of the Nanofabrication
& Devices Group at the CNM, an Adjunct Assistant Professor of
Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago,
and a Research Professor of Physics at the Illinois Institute of
Technology. He earned his B.A. in History and B.S. in Engineering
Physics at Cornell University, his M.S. degrees in Materials
Science and Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his
Ph.D. in Physics from Uppsala University. He established a program
and beamline for X-ray lithography at MAX-Lab at Lund University
before going to work at the Advanced Photon Source in 1995, where
he established programs in deep X-ray lithography(LIGA), X-ray
nano-optics, X-ray microtomography, and high-throughput X-ray
microanalysis using synchrotron radiation. He has been the Project
Manager of the CNM Project since 2002, having successfully
managed the $72M project for the design, construction, and
instrumentation of the CNM. He has 30 years experience in
synchrotron radiation research and participated in the design and
construction of 7 synchrotron radiation beamlines. He has 25 years
experience in advanced lithographictechnologies. His current
research interests are in the areas of advanced nanofabrication
techniques, nanofluid and nanogels, and the applications of
synchrotron radiation to nanotechnology. He has coauthored over 135
papers and 3 patents, and is a recipient of an R&D 100 Award.
top
Sean Murdock
Executive Director, NanoBusiness Alliance
Prior to becoming the Executive Director of the NanoBusiness
Alliance, he was the Executive Director and a founding board member
of AtomWorks, an initiative formed to foster nanotechnology in
Illinois and more broadly throughout the Midwest.
Sean has established himself as a leading thinker in the areas of
nanotechnology commercialization and economic development. He has
delivered keynote speeches on the commercialization of
nanotechnology at several nanotechnology conferences, and served as
co-chair for the commercialization focused NanoCommerce 2003
conference and trade show. Sean has been quoted extensively on the
subject in many leading publications including Fortune, The
Economist, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Small
Times.
Sean has been very active in nanotechnology trade and economic
development issues. He helped to organize and execute the first
Nanotechnology Trade Mission to Europe in conjunction with the
NanoBusiness Alliance and the U.S. Department of Commerce. He has
also been engaged with senior officials of the U.S. Department of
Commerce's Technology Administration on the potential impact of
export control issues on nanotechnology development and
commercialization.
Prior to founding AtomWorks and serving as the Executive Director
of the NanoBusiness Alliance, Sean had more than 7 years experience
in management consulting, most recently as Engagement Manager at
McKinsey & Company. Sean served a variety of Fortune 500
companies, focusing primarily upon the industrial and chemicals
sectors. While there, he developed some of the firm's early
perspective on the business opportunities created by the nanotech
revolution, publishing the first two internal documents on the
subject.
Sean received his Masters in Business Administration and Masters in
Engineering Management from Northwestern University. He holds a BA
in Economics from the University of Notre Dame. top
Warren Ribley
Director, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity
On March 2, 2009, Governor Pat Quinn named Warren Ribley as
Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity.
Prior to this announcement, Ribley served as DCEO's Director of
Operations since March 2003 where he oversaw the Department's 12
administrative offices and 12 program bureaus. In this role, he
helped the state of Illinois add more new jobs than any Midwestern
state since 2004; facilitated the development of more than 585 new
business projects in Illinois and was a key player in the campaign
to bring FutureGen, the "clean-coal plant of tomorrow" to
Mattoon.
Ribley began working in state government in 1979, serving for
twelve years in the Office of the Illinois Senate President. He
joined the Office of the State Treasurer in 1991 and became the
Director of Banking in 1993 under now-Governor Quinn, managing
relationships between the State of Illinois and over 500 financial
institutions.
He has 21 years of professional experience in state government and
eight years in the private sector, focusing on financial services.
Throughout his career Ribley, has worked closely with the Illinois
General Assembly to develop successful programs to strengthen the
Illinois economy.
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity's
mission is to bolster and improve Illinois' competitiveness in the
changing global economy. Among the Department's top
priorities: creating and retaining high quality jobs, maintaining a
well-trained workforce and building strong communities.
Originally from Olney, he has lived in Springfield with this family
for nearly 30 years. top
Michael S. Rosen
Senior Vice-President, New Business Development, Forest
City Science + Technology Group (Illinois Science and Technology
Park).
Mr. Rosen is responsible for developing marketing strategies for
Forest City's biocience parks across the United States, including
the Illinois Science + Technology Park which houses 4 nanotech
companies and the NanoBusiness Alliance, the national
nanotechnology trade association. He also serves as Forest City's
liaison to the life science industry, developing ongoing day-to-day
working relationships with Forest City's biotech/research clients,
and establishing contacts with other prospective emerging
technology prospects. Prior to joining Forest City, Mr. Rosen spent
20 years with major pharma companies (Pfizer, Bristol-Myers, and
Searle/Monsanto), and 12 years as CEO of biotech and medical device
companies in Europe and the U.S. He holds a BA degree in
International Relations from Beloit College, and an MBA degree in
International Business from the University of Miami (Florida). He
is also a professor of international management at Lake Forest
Graduate School of Management, and the biotech columnist for
MidwestBusiness.com. top
Norbert F. Scherer, PhD
Professor of Chemistry, James Franck Institute, Institute
Biophysical Dynamics, and the College, University of Chicago
a. Professional Preparation
The University of Chicago, Chicago,
IL
Chemistry
B.S
1982
California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, Chemical
Physics
Ph.D.
1989
National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, University of
Chicago
1989-1991
Postdoctoral Associate, University of
Chicago
1991-1992
b. Appointments
2006-present Committee on Quantitative
Biology University
of Chicago
2006-present Senior
Scientist
Argonne National Lab
2002-present Consortium for Nanoscience
Research, Senior Fellow U. of C / ANL
1998-present Institute for Biophysical
Dynamics
University of Chicago
Co-Director, 1998-2002
1997-present Professor of Chemistry and James
Franck Institute
University of Chicago
1992-1997 Assistant
Professor of
Chemistry
University of Pennsylvania
c. Publications (from list of >130)
5 most closely related to project:
- Models of single-molecule experiments with periodic
perturbations reveal hidden dynamics in RNA folding, Y. Li, X. Qu,
A. Ma, G. J. Smith, N. F. Scherer, A. R. Dinner, J. Phys. Chem.,
submitted (2009)
- Single-Molecule non-equilibrium periodic Mg2+
-concentration jump experiments reveal details of the early folding
pathways of a large RNA, X. Qu, G. J. Smith, K. T. Lee, T. R.
Sosnick, T. Pan, N. F. Scherer, PNAS,
105 6602-6607
(2008).
- Quantitative Measurement of Insulin Granule Transport by
Segmented Spatio-temporal Image Correlation Spectroscopy and
Particle Tracking Analysis, H. Y. Kim, J. E.
Jureller, A. Kuznetsov, L. H. Philipson, N. F. Scherer, Biophys. J.
(submitted 2008)
- Using the Bias from Flow to Elucidate Single DNA Repair Protein
Sliding and Interactions with DNA, Y. Lin, T. Zhao, Z.
Farooqui, X. Qu, C. He, A. R. Dinner, N. F. Scherer, Biophys. J.,
in press (2009). doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2008.11.021
- Axis-Dependent Anisotropy in Protein Unfolding from Integrated
Nonequilibrium Single-Molecule Experiments, Analysis, and
Simulation. R. A. Nome, J. M. Zhao, W. D. Hoff, N. F.
Scherer, PNAS,
104, 20799-20804 (2007).
5 other significant and related publications:
- A large collapse-state RNA can exhibit simple exponential
single molecule dynamics, G. J. Smith, K.
T. Lee, X. Qu, Z. Xie, J. Pesic, T. R. Sosnick, T. Pan, N. F.
Scherer, J. Molecular Biology,
378 941-951 (2008).
- Evidence for a Diffusion-Controlled Mechanism for Fluorescence
Blinking of Colloidal Quantum Dots, M. Pelton, G. Smith, N. F.
Scherer, R. A. Marcus, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
U.S.A., 104, 14249-14254 (2007).
- Single-molecule detection of structural changes during
Per-Arnt-Sim (PAS) domain activation.
J. M. Zhao, H. Lee, R. A. Nome, S. Majid, N. F.
Scherer, W. D. Hoff, Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA,
103, 11561 (2006).
- Single-molecule Mechanics of Mussel Adhesion, H. Lee, N. F.
Scherer, and P. B. Messersmith, Proc. Natl. Acad.
Sci. 103, 12999-13003 (2006).
- Nanometer-localized Multiple Single-Molecule Fluorescence
Microscopy, X. Qu, D. Wu, L. Mets, and N. F. Scherer,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 101,
11298-11303 (2004).
d. Synergistic Activities
- Founding Member, Institute for Biophysical Dynamics
(IBD) at The University of Chicago, (Co-Director, 1998-2002) whose
mission is to foster collaborative multidisciplinary research at
the interface of Physical and Biological Sciences. The IBD, which
currently consists of 18 faculty (with 24 planned), has initiated
many collaborative research endeavors, especially with faculty
outside of the IBD, and a new PhD granting program. This "outreach"
empowers the larger University community.
- Participating researcher, University of Chicago Materials
Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). Scherer's
participation focuses on understanding structure-function relations
and transport properties of soft materials, and nanoscale
characterization of bio-functional materials.
- Created the NanoBiology Core Facility at the
University of Chicago. This is a novel facility that includes both
user service as well as novel instrument development activities
that enhance access of research groups to state-of-the-art optical
and scanning probe microscopy instrumentation.
- Founding Co-Director, 2000-2007 Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Interfaces "Cross-Disciplinary Training Program in Biophysical
Dynamics and Biocomplexity" fostered new collaborations by fully
supporting Physical Sciences graduate student Fellows for
two years to conduct interdisciplinary research with a Biological
Sciences co-mentor. 34 Fellows, ~40% female, were supported in the
6.5 years of the program.
National and International Conference Organizer
Co-organizer of Symposia at National ACS and APS
meetings, 1994; 1998; 1999; 2002
Program Co-Chair, 12th
International Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena, July, 2000
Chair, Gordon Research Conference on Chemistry and
Physics of Liquids, July, 2001
General Chair, 13th International
Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena, May, 2002
e. Collaborators and Co-Editors
Collaborators last 48 months: Aaron Dinner, U
Chicago; Bret Flanders, Oklahoma State; Philippe Guyot-Sionnest, U
Chicago; Chuan He, U Chicago, W. Hoff, Oklahoma State; Sang Kee Im,
Rensselear; H. Jaeger, U Chicago; Xiao-Min Lin, Argonne Natl. Lab;
Shaul Mukamel, UC Irvine; Louis Philipson, U Chicago, Gregory
Voth, U Utah; Gary Wiederrecht, Argonne Natl. Lab.
Co-Editors last 24 months: none
My own advisors: Graduate:
Ahmed H. Zewail, California Institute of Technology
Postgraduate: Graham R. Fleming, The University
of Chicago (now at U California, Berkeley)
PhD Thesis advisor to: * denotes academic
faculty member
Former Students: David Arnett*, Northwestern
College; Lewis Book, Picarro; Shunji Egusa, MIT; Mark Feldstein,
Naval Research Laboratory; Bret Flanders*, Oklahoma State; Julie
Gruetzmacher, Argonne Natl. Lab; Matthew Horn*, Utah Valley State
College; Justin Jureller, University of Chicago; Yish-Hann Liau*,
Institute of Molecular Science, National Chiao Tung University,
Taiwan, Jeongho Kim, U Toronto; Sungnam Park*, Stanford U; Sachin
Rane; Zheng Xie, Helicos BioSciences, Cambridge, MA; Jason Ming
Zhao, Kirby Research Center, Johns Hopkins University; Xiaohui Qu,
UC Berkeley
Current Students: Mason Guffey, Margaret Hershberger,
Amy Kim, Jelena Pesic, Glenna Smith, Tom Spears, Yihan Lin.
Total number supervised: (including 5 M.S.
recipients)
28
Postdoctorals sponsored: * denotes academic
faculty
member
Former Postdocs: Peter Vöhringer*, Univ. of Bonn;
Lowell Ungar, US Senate Staff, Senator Harkin; Weining Wang;
Tzzy-Shuian Yang*, National Chung-Cheng University, Taiwan; Arash
Bakhtyari, Germany; Xiaoming Shang, Columbia University; Andreas
Unterreiner*, University of Karlsruhe; Rongchao Jin*,
Carnegie-Mellon; Matthew Pelton, Argonne Natl. Lab; Kang Taek Lee,
Korea; Andrew Moran*, UNC Chapel Hill; Kimani Toussaint*, U.
Illinois, Urbana, Peter Redmond,
Current Postdocs: Martin Lenz, Rene Nome;
Total number sponsored: 15
Undergraduates supervised: 11 top
Dennis Sienko
President / CEO Illinois Science & Technology
Coalition
Dennis Sienko is the President of Sienko &
Associates, a consulting practice that specializes in building
new technology / workforce / economic development projects, with
particular expertise in the development of public / private
partnerships. Clients have included the Illinois Department
of Commerce & Economic Opportunity (DECO), the Illinois
Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBIO) and its education
affiliate, the iBIO Institute, World Business Chicago and the
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Dennis has supported the growth of Illinois technology companies
through a variety of professional experiences, including:
- President & CEO of the Illinois Science &
Technology Coalition, where he has been engaged to revitalize
an important public-private partnership that advocates for large
federal research commitments to Illinois' universities / national
labs / companies and conducts market development activities
pursuant to attracting such large research commitments.
- Chief Executive Officer of the Prairie State 2000
Authority, a State of Illinois workforce development agency
that was a national pioneer in providing financial support to
private-sector companies for work-based technology and quality
improvement systems retraining.
- Deputy Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and
Economic Opportunity, where he was responsible for the Bureau
of Technology and Industrial Competitiveness, charged with
supporting the development of key sectors of the Illinois economy
through technical assistance and over $ 150 million in grant
investment programs. Grant investments included such
projects as the University of Chicago / Argonne National
Laboratory's Center for Nanoscale Materials; the BIO 2006
International Conference (Chicago); the Illinois Technology
Enterprise Centers; and, the Boeing / Caterpillar / John Deere
Supplier Chain Training Initiatives. Prior to becoming Deputy
Director, Dennis had been engaged, as one of three consultants, to
create the Governor's Executive Order # 11 that consolidated all
major State of Illinois training programs under the umbrella of the
Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity.
- Executive Director of the AeA - Midwest Council, an
eleven state representative of the American Electronics Association
(AeA), the nation's largest high-tech trade
association. The AeA - Midwest Council developed and
executed the "Wireless Chicago" track at Comdex 2002.
- President of the National Association of Industry-Specific
Training Directors, an organization representing state
officials who are responsible for administering over $ 500 M in
state-funded industry specific technology training programs
throughout the United States.
- District Director - Business & Industry Services for
the City Colleges of Chicago, where he was responsible for
leading a seven-college system in meeting the customized training /
technology needs of Chicago companies.
- Biotechnology Consultant for World Business
Chicago, where he was selected to represent the interests of
the State of Illinois ($ 1.5 M investment) in developing and
executing the Biotechnology Industry Organization's (BIO) 2006
International Convention. Thanks to a unique partnership among the
State of Illinois, the City of Chicago, World Business Chicago,
iBIO and Illinois' academic and biotechnology business communities,
BIO 2006 surpassed all previous convention records, including:
attendance (19,479 attendees from 62 countries), number of
structured business meetings (11,018), exhibit hall participation
(over 1,701 exhibitors from 43 states and 36 nations), sponsorship
dollars raised ($ 9.1 M), number of Governors in attendance (12),
and more. It was the first time in its thirteen year history
that this international convention was held in the Midwest,
resulting in an estimated $ 28 M being added to the Illinois
economy. The overwhelming success of BIO 2006 led to
the national convention organizers committing to return the event
to Chicago in 2010 and 2013.
Dennis has over 25 years of experience on the local, state and
national levels. He has served on the Governor's Illinois
Broadband Task Force, acting as its meeting moderator; the Argonne
Rare Isotope Accelerator Task Force; the BIO 2006 International
Conference Executive, Government Relations and Education
Committees; Mayor Richard M. Daley's Council of Technology Advisors
- Education and Workforce Subcommittee; the City of Chicago's Joint
Technology Workforce Task Force; the Illinois Department of
Commerce and Community Affairs' Small Business Development Centers'
Statewide Advisory Committee; and the DCCA / Illinois Coalition's
Advanced Manufacturing Focus Group.
In addition, Dennis was an invited participant to President Bill
Clinton's "Conference of the Future of the American Workplace"; was
chosen as a member of the President George H. Bush's Manufacturing
Roundtable of the U.S. Department of Labor's National Advisory
Commission on Work-Based Learning; and was selected to serve on the
National Alliance of Business' Advisory Board of the National
Workforce Assistance Collaborative.
top
Sir J. Fraser
Stoddart
Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry, Director, Center
for the Chemistry of Integrated Systems, Northwestern
University
Fraser Stoddart (b 1942) received his BSc (1964) and PhD (1966)
degrees from Edinburgh University. In 1967, he went to Queen's
University (Canada) as a National Research Council Postdoctoral
Fellow, and then, in 1970, to Sheffield University as an Imperial
Chemical Industries (ICI) Research Fellow, before joining the
academic staff as a Lecturer in Chemistry. He was a Science
Research Council Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1978. After spending a sabbatical
(1978-81) at the ICI Corporate Laboratory in Runcorn, he returned
to Sheffield where he was promoted to a Readership in 1982. He was
awarded a DSc degree by Edinburgh in 1980 for his research into
stereochemistry beyond the molecule. In 1990, he took up the Chair
of Organic Chemistry at Birmingham University and was Head of the
School of Chemistry there (1993-97) before moving to UCLA as the
Saul Winstein Professor of Chemistry in 1997. In July 2002, he
became the Acting Co-Director of the California NanoSystems
Institute (CNSI). On May 1, 2003, he was appointed the Director of
the CNSI and assumed the Fred Kavli Chair of NanoSystems Sciences.
He stood down from the former on July 31, 2007 and relinquished the
latter on December 31, 2007 in order to join the faculty at
Northwestern University as a Board of Trustees Professor of
Chemistry on January 1, 2008. On March 1, 2008, he was appointed an
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at UCLA.
Stoddart is one of the few chemists of the past quarter of a
century to have created a new field of organic chemistry - namely,
one in which the mechanical bond is a pre-eminent feature of
molecular compounds. He has pioneered the development of the use of
molecular recognition and self-assembly processes in
template-directed protocols for the syntheses of two-state
mechanically interlocked compounds (bistable catenanes and
rotaxanes) that have been employed as molecular switches and as
motor-molecules in the fabrication of nanoelectronic devices and
NanoElectroMechanical Systems (NEMS).
His work has been recognized by many awards, including the
Carbohydrate Chemistry Award of The Chemical Society (1978), the
International Izatt-Christensen Award in Macrocyclic Chemistry
(1993), the American Chemical Society's Cope Scholar Award (1999),
the Nagoya Gold Medal in Organic Chemistry (2004), the King Faisal
International Prize in Science (2007), the Tetrahedron Prize for
Creativity in Organic Chemistry (2007), the Albert Einstein World
Award of Science (2007), the Foresight Nanotech Institute Feynman
Prize in Nanotechnology (Experimental) (2007), the American
Chemical Society's Cope Award (2008), and the Royal Society's Davy
Medal (2008). He was one of ca. 20 research scientists to be
invited by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to participate in
the Nobel Jubilee Symposium on "Frontiers of Molecular Sciences" in
Stockholm in December 2001. In 2005, he received the Honorary
Degree of Doctor of Science from Birmingham University, as well as
being the recipient of the University of Edinburgh Alumnus of the
Year 2005 Award. In December 2006, he received an Honorary Degree
of Doctor of Science from the University of Twente, and in July
2008, also from Sheffield University. He is currently on the
international advisory boards of numerous journals, including
Angewandte Chemie and the Journal of Organic Chemistry. He is the
editor of the Royal Society of Chemistry Series of Monographs on
Supramolecular Chemistry. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society
(1994), the German Academy (Leopoldina) of Natural Sciences (1999),
the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), the
Science Division of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and
Sciences (2006), and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2008). He was
appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as a Knight Bachelor in
her 2007 New Year's Honours List for his services to chemistry and
molecular nanotechnology.
In addition to being made an Honorary Professor at the East
China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai and the
Carnegie Centenary Visiting Professor at the Scottish Universities
in 2005, Stoddart has been awarded named lectureships by, inter
alia, the following universities - Alberta, Albany (SUNY),
Appalachian State, Arkansas, Baylor, Brigham Young, Berkeley (UC),
Bristol, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dalhousie, Dundee, Edinburgh,
ETH Zurich, Hebrew, Kaiserslautern, Kansas, Karlsruhe, Louvain La
Neuve, McGill, Minnesota, Missouri-St Louis, Georgia Institute of
Technology, Montreal, Nevada, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma,
Pennsylvania, Purdue, Regensburg, Rochester, Saskatoon,
Simon-Fraser, Song Sil, Strasbourg, Sydney, Texas Austin, Texas
A&M, Texas Christian, Vanderbilt, Victoria, Western Ontario,
Wesleyan, Wisconsin, and Yale. He has also been Middle Rhine
(1982), Troisième Cycle en Chemie (1988), and Atlantic Coast (1993)
Lecturer. He went on Royal Society Lecture Tours of the USSR and
Japan in 1986 and 1987, respectively.
Some measure of the influence and impact of Stoddart's work may
be drawn from citation statistics. Five of his >820 publications
have been cited over 500 times, 14 over 300, 69 over 100, and 190
over 50. He has an h-index of 87. For the period from January 1997
to December 31, 2007, he is ranked by the Institute for Scientific
Information as the third most cited chemist with a total of 14.038
citations from 304 papers at a frequency of 46.2 citations per
paper. He has given almost 700 plenary/invited lectures. During 38
years, >320 PhD and postdoctoral students have passed through
his laboratories and been inspired by his imagination and
creativity, and >60 have subsequently embarked upon successful
independent academic careers. top
Nancy Sullivan
Director, Office of Technology Management, University of
Illinois at Chicago
In 2008 Nancy Sullivan was named the Director of the University
of Illinois, Chicago's Office of Technology Management. Sullivan
was previously senior director of business development for
KeraCure.
The Office of Technology Management works closely with
IllinoisVENTURES, the University of Illinois start-up services and
early-stage venture capital company. IllinoisVENTURES has $24
million invested in start-up companies, mostly based on research by
professors on the U. of I.'s Chicago and Urbana-Champaign campuses.
IllinoisVENTURES has also arranged $238 million in third-party
funding for start-ups. Sullivan will report to Vice President Ghosh
and work with the UIC vice chancellor for research, University
counsel, research units, colleges, departments and, especially,
faculty members. Her appointment is subject to approval by the
University's Board of Trustees.
She also works with the Champaign-Urbana Office of Technology
Management director Lesley Millar to combine and coordinate
Chicago- and Urbana-Champaign-based technology-commercialization
activities such as outreach, licensing and marketing.
Sullivan earned her MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg
School of Management and an M.S. in biotechnology, also from
Northwestern. She earned her bachelor's degree in business
administration from Loyola University. The UIC Office of Technology
Management is located at UIC's west medical campus on Polk Street.
Sullivan is replacing interim director David Gulley. top
Alan Thomas
Director, Office of Technology and Intellectual Property,
University of Chicago
Alan Thomas is the Director of the Office of Technology and
Intellectual Property (UChicagoTech) at the University of Chicago.
His previous work experience includes directing licensing
activities at ARCH Development Corporation, formerly the licensing
and business development arm of the University of Chicago;
technology transfer and business development for the Institute for
Applied Colloid Technology, a German-based technical consultancy
and licensor of technology to the cosmetic and pharmaceutical
industry; Business Development Manager for Nanophase Technologies
Corporation, a venture-backed ARCH start-up, now public (Symbol:
NANX), in the area of ultrafine powders based on technology from
Argonne National Laboratory; and chemical engineering with ICI
(Imperial Chemical Industries) in the U.K.
Alan has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from
University College London, an M.B.A. from the University of
Chicago, and is a Chartered Chemical Engineer. top
Philip Troyk
President, Sigenics and Associate Professor, Pritzker
Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Illinois Institute
of Technology
As director of The Laboratory of Neuroprosthetic Research, Dr.
Troyk has a broad range of research interests related to
neuroprostheses. Neuroprosthetic devices are implantable
electronic modules that interface with the biological nervous
system for the purpose of compensating for deficit, or disease, by
mimicking normal sensory or motor function. Examples are
neuromuscular stimulators for functional electrical stimulation
(FES), implantable sensors for FES control, and cortical interfaces
in which hundreds or thousands of electrodes sense and stimulate
neurons within the central nervous system. The research work
is highly interdisciplinary, using engineering principles and
technology from electrical, computer, materials, mechanical, and
chemical engineering. Design and fabrication of reliable
implantable neuroprosthetic devices requires advancements in
packaging of implantable electronics (hermetic and polymeric), VLSI
integrated circuit design, transcutaneous magnetic coupling of
power and data, as well as defining system architectures. He
is leader of a large multi-institutional team working to develop an
intracortical visual prosthesis for individuals with
blindness. However, his other work includes industrial
applications of remote wireless sensing and radio frequency
identification (RFID). top
