H. Kumar Wickramasinghe

H. Kumar Wickramasinghe, Ph.D., is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a respected pioneer in nanotechnology. Prior to joining UC Irvine, Wickramasinghe managed nanoscience and technology research at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif. He holds 107 patents, and some of his most significant inventions and contributions to the nano field include the development of the vibrating mode atomic force microscope (AFM), the magnetic force microscope, the electrostatic force microscope, the Kelvin probe force microscope, the scanning thermal microscope, and the apertureless near-field optical microscope. Most of these scanning probe microscopes are standard instruments used today for nano-scale characterization.

Wickramasinghe was awarded the 2006 Scientific American 50 Award for devising a technique for ultra-fast electrophoresis using an Atomic Force Microscope (top 50 contributions to research, business, and policy). His AFM jet device for rapid molecule sorting and delivery was named one of the 25 most innovative products of 2006 in the inaugural “MICRO/NANO 25” competition held by the editors of R&D magazine and the MICRO/NANO Newsletter.

Wickramasinghe is an IBM Fellow and a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, as well as a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Royal Microscopical Society and the National Academy of Inventors.