Ming Tan
Dr. Tan is the founder of Wainamics, a research and development company specializing in POC and life science microfluidic system development. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from California Institute of Technology. She has over 30 years of experience developing diagnostic devices and life science tools for many startups and government labs. Her expertise is in combining chemistry, materials, and microfluidics engineering to develop products for POC testing and Life Science research. Wainamics has developed multiple products from Fortune 500 companies, NASA, as well as small start-ups, and academic spin offs.
Juan G. Santiago
Prof. Juan Santiago is a faculty member in the department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He received his MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995. His research includes the development of microsystems for on-chip chemical and biochemical analysis, methods for sample preparation, miniature pumps, and electric-field based deionization methods. Applications of this work include genetic analysis, drug discovery, portable power generation, and the production of drinking water. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, an Associate Editor of the journal Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, co-founder of several companies in the microfluidics area, co-inventor of micron-resolution particle image velocimetry (Micro-PIV), and director of the Stanford Microfluidics Laboratory. He has served as Associate Editor of the journal Lab on a Chip (’08-’13). As one measure of impact, his work is cited about 1000 times per year.He has graduated 24 PhD students and advised eight postdoctoral researchers. He has authored and co-authored over 150 archival publications and 200 conference papers, and holds 34 patents.
Amy E. Herr
Amy E. Herr is the Lester John & Lynne Dewar Lloyd Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley and a Chan Zuckerberg (CZ) Biohub Investigator. Prof. Herr joined UC Berkeley as Assistant Professor of Bioengineering in 2007, was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2012, and promoted to Full Professor in 2015. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, she was a staff member in the Biosystems Research Group at Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore, CA; 2002-2007). She earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford with Profs. Tom Kenny & Juan Santiago as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, an MS in Mechanical Engineering also from Stanford, and a BS in Engineering & Applied Science from Caltech.
Professor Herr is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a Board Member of the Chemical & Biological Microsystems Society (CBMS) which oversees the microTAS conferences, is a standing member of the NIH Nanotechnology Study Section, and is an Advisory Board Member for the UCSF Rosenman Institute and the journals Analytical Chemistry and ACS Sensors. She has served as a Co-Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Single Cell Analysis summer course (2015 & 2016), both Chair (2009) and Vice-chair (2007) of the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on the Physics & Chemistry of Microfluidics. She is faculty advisor to the UC Berkeley chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and the Graduate Women in Engineering (GWE).
Professor Herr’s research has been recognized by: the 2016 Mid-career Achievement Award from the American Electrophoresis Society, the 2015 Georges Guiochon Faculty Fellow from HPLC, the 2012 Young Innovator Award from Analytical Chemistry/CBMS, the 2012 Ellen Weaver Award from the Association for Women in Science (AWIS, for mentoring), a 2011 NSF CAREER award, a 2010 NIH New Innovator Award, a 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in chemistry, a 2010 New Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry from Eli Lilly & Co., a 2009 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award, a 2009 Hellman Family Faculty Fund Award from UC Berkeley, a 2008 Regents’ Junior Faculty Fellowship from the University of California. Professor Herr has also been recognized by the 2012 Outstanding Instructor Award in Bioengineering (Bioengineering Honor Society student vote) and a 2007 Outstanding Mentor Award from Sandia National Laboratories.
Darlene Solomon
Dr. Darlene Solomon is a microfluidics industry veteran. She most recently served as senior vice president and chief technology officer for Agilent Technologies. In that role, her responsibilities included Agilent Research Laboratories which focuses on high impact, longer range research in support of Agilent’s sustained business growth, and Agilent’s programs in university relations, external research and venture investment. In her leadership role, she works closely with Agilent’s businesses to define the company’s technology strategy and R&D priorities.
Solomon brings extensive experience in R&D and management to her current leadership role at Agilent. She joined Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in 1984 as a member of the technical staff, subsequently holding a variety of research and management positions there, including R&D manager for the Chemical and Biological Systems Department. She joined Agilent when the company was formed in 1999 with a dual role as director of the Life Sciences Technologies Laboratory within Agilent Laboratories and as senior director, Research and Development/Technology, for Agilent’s Life Sciences and Chemical Analysis business. Prior to being named to her current post, Solomon was vice president and director of Agilent Laboratories.
Solomon received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Stanford University and a doctorate in bioinorganic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and she completed Stanford University’s Executive Development Program. In recognition of her career accomplishments, Solomon was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2017. She was also inducted into the Women in Technology International’s Hall of Fame (2001), received the YWCA Tribute to Women and Industry Award (2004), named to Diversity Journal’s Women Worth Watching (2007) and Corporate Board Member’s 50 Top Women in Technology (2008), received the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Daniel J Epstein Engineering Management Award (2018) and elected to George Washington High School’s Alumni Hall of Merit (2018).