Industrial Manufacturing and Commercialization of Microfluidics: Are We There Yet?

Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 10:00 p.m. to Friday, April 30, 2010 - 10:55 p.m.
Room 3008, Cal-IT2

Featuring Holger Becker, Ph.D.

Co-Founder and CSO

Microfluidic ChipShop GmbH, Germany



Free and open to the public

Refreshments will be served



This seminar is sponsored by the Micro/Nano Fluidics Fundamentals Focus (MF3) Center, headquartered at UC Irvine. Visit our website for more information about the center: www.inrf.uci.edu/mf3



Abstract:

Historically, the microfluidics industry has been challenged to achieve a strong return on investment. With the exception of inkjet printing, a key killer application has yet to be identified for this burgeoning technology. With nearly 20 years of experience in the industry, Holger Becker, Ph.D., co-founder and CSO of Microfluidic ChipShop GmbH in Germany, will share his thoughts and perspective on this matter as well as practical advice and predictions.



Over the last few years, Becker has authored many insightful focus articles in the leading journal for microfluidics, Lab on a Chip. Titles include “Hype, Hope, and Hubris: The Quest for the Killer Application in Microfluidics,”  “It’s the Economy…,” “Mind the Gap!” and most recently “Lost in Translation.” Please join us for an important seminar with one of the world’s leading experts in the field.



About the Speaker:

Holger Becker, Ph.D., is co-founder and CSO of Microfluidic ChipShop GmbH. He obtained physics degrees from the University of Western Australia/Perth and the University of Heidelberg. He started to work on miniaturized systems for chemical analysis during his Ph.D. thesis research at Heidelberg University, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1995. Between 1995 and 1997, he was a research associate at Imperial College with Andreas Manz. In 1998, he joined Jenoptik Mikrotechnik GmbH. Since then, he founded and led several companies in the field of microsystem technologies in medicine and the life sciences. He leads the Industry Group of the German Physical Society and is member of the program committee of the SPIE “Microfluidics, BioMEMS and Medical Microsystems” conference as well as acting as regular reviewer of project proposals on both the national and European Union level and for several journals devoted to microsystem technologies.