ALA Innovation Award Finalists

ALA announces the finalists for the $10,000 Innovation Award. The ALA Innovation Award recognizes seminal research and development in laboratory automation presented in podium presentations at the annual LabAutomation conference. To be granted the Award, the presented work must be exceedingly innovative contributing to the exploration of automation technologies in the laboratory. In addition, it must exhibit independence of thought, clarity of vision, extraordinary technical originality, and unique integration and automation strategies.

We are pleased to announce the ALA Innovation Award finalists:

Jason Haaheim, M.S., Skokie, IL, USA, NanoInk — Dip Pen Nanolithography® for Cell-Signaling: Towards Automated Nanolithography

Ali Khademhosseini, Ph.D., Cambridge, MA, USA, Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Microengineered Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering and Stem Cell Bioengineering

Abe Lee, Ph.D., Irvine, CA, USA, University of California, Irvine — Microfluidic Acoustically-Activated Air-Liquid Cavities for On-Chip Integration of Sample Preparation and Sample Detection

Darren Link, Ph.D., Lexington, MA, USA, RainDance Technologies — Multiplexing Assays with Droplet Libraries

Richard Mathies, Ph.D., Berkeley, CA, USA, University of California, Berkeley — Integrated Microfluidic Systems for High Performance Biochemical and Genetic Analysis

Zheng Ouyang, Ph.D., West Lafayette, IN, USA, Purdue University — Development of Miniature Mass Spectrometry Analysis Systems

Juan Santiago, Stanford, CA, USA, Stanford University — Rapid Chemical Detection and Identification with a Hand Held Device

Gary Siuzdak, Ph.D., La Jolla, CA, USA, The Scripps Research Institute — Tissue Imaging with Nanostructure Initiator Mass Spectrometry (NIMS)

Robin Smith, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA, ArtusLabs, Inc. — A New Paradigm for Results and Analytics, the Leap from Data Storage to Knowledge

Pak Kin Wong, Ph.D., Tucson, AZ, USA, University or Arizona — A 5-in-1 Bioprocessor for Electrokinetic Sample Preparation and Electrochemical Detection