October Luncheon Meeting (Goleta) 10/11/17

Smarter Sensors and Wearable Devices for Medicine

Digital medicine and big data are the hot words these days. However, digital medicine is only as good as the data it uses, and the data can only be as good as the sensor that provides it. Dr. Sumita Pennathur will present her lab's latest work on biosensor research and development, ranging from nanofluidic in-vitro diagnostics of viruses to wearable devices for glucose monitoring, which is an important new passion of hers given her daughter's recent diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes.

Dr. Sumita Pennathur received her B.S. and M.S. in Aerospace and Aeronautical Engineering from MIT and her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. Prior to joining UCSB in 2007, she performed postdoctoral studies at both Sandia National Laboratories and University of Twente.

Since arriving at UCSB, Pennathur has contributed significantly to the fields of nanofluidics and interfacial science. She has pushed the envelope in the characterization of nanofluidic channels. Furthermore, she has discovered novel nanoscale concentration mechanisms that focus analytes within nanofluidic channels and has demonstrated unique separations of various biomolecules. Finally, she has developed a novel fabrication process for on-chip detection of biomolecules, which has the potential to revolutionize bio-analytical devices.

In addition to her over 60 publications, her notable awards include the DARPA Young Faculty Award (2008), the UC Regents Junior Faculty Fellowship (2009), and the PECASE (Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering) (2010), and the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce Innovator of the Quarter Award (2012).