From the Lemelson-MIT Prize release:
For Professor Chad Mirkin, good things come in small packages – specifically one billionth of a meter in size. Yet, as director of Northwestern
Chad Mirkin
University’s International Institute for Nanotechnology, the impact of Mirkin’s work is anything but small. A prolific inventor and entrepreneur, his innovations have the potential to transform the future of medical diagnostics and patient point-of-care and to ignite change across many industries from semi-conductors to healthcare. For his revolutionary discoveries and sizeable contributions to science and invention, Mirkin is awarded the prestigious 2009 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize.
Mirkin, the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University (NU), will accept the prize and present his accomplishments to the public at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the Lemelson-MIT Program’s third-annual EurekaFest, a multi-day celebration of the inventive spirit, June 25-27.
As a leader in the burgeoning field of nanotechnology, Mirkin is the author of 380 manuscripts and over 350 patents and applications, and is currently listed as the third most cited chemist over the past decade and the most cited nanomedicine researcher in the world.1,2 “Professor Mirkin’s cutting-edge, innovative work is greatly contributing to America’s economic competitiveness and will help ensure that the nation remains at the forefront of one of the most promising areas in science,” states Congressman Daniel Lipinski of Illinois.
Mirkin is best known for the invention, development and commercialization of two revolutionary technologies – the nanoparticle-based medical diagnostic assays underlying the FDA-approved Verigene IDTM system and Dip-Pen Nanolithography (DPN), an ultra high resolution molecule-based printing technique. Both inventions were born, in part, out of Northwestern University’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, funded by the National Science Foundation, and conceived, managed and directed by Mirkin. There, Mirkin’s research, with the help of NU graduate students and colleagues, has formed the basis of several start-up companies that are helping to bring his inventions from the lab to the market.
Seeking Nominees for 2010 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize
Applications for the 2010 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize are now available at http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-prize.html. The annual prize honors an outstanding mid-career inventor who is dedicated to improving our world through technological invention and innovation.
