Plenary Speakers

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Meet the Visionaries Who Inspire Us

On Tuesday, January 26, commencing at 8:30 a.m., Kei Koizumi from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will address the distribution and use of federal grant dollars through the National Institute of Health (NIH) to fund research and development initiatives, and more specifically technology equipment purchases. Koizumi also plans to detail how scientists should go about seeking federal funding for technology equipment, and how to incorporate those dollars into their research initiatives.

LabAutomation2010 Scientific Committee Chair Robyn Rourick is excited about the addition of such a high profile figure from President Obama's administration.

"The LabAutomation2010 plenary series has always represented our dedication to enhancing the scope of topics highlighted through the scientific program," said Rourick. "The addition of Mr. Koizumi takes that objective to new heights. He will bring a significant presence from Washington, D.C. and speak to federal funding for science and technology, which is a hot button topic in our community."

Hod Lipson, Associate Professor Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, will follow Koizumi with his presentation at 9:15 a.m. on automatic design, fabrication and adaptation of virtual and physical machines.

Monday, January 25; 9 am — Opening Keynote Address

Changing Landscape of Mass Spectrometry: Ambient Ionization, Miniature Instruments and Preparative MS for Biomedical, Clinical, Environmental and Forensic Applications
The rapid evolution of mass spectrometry (MS) continues unabated. This presentation covers recent progress in three growth areas: (i) ambient ionization methods which are characterized by minimal sample preparation, high throughput and in situ chemical analysis; (ii) miniature mass spectrometers, especially fully autonomous handheld instruments fitted with ambient ionization sources and capable of tandem mass spectrometry experiments to allow complex mixture analysis in situ; (iii) ion soft landing and related experiments in which mass-selected ions are deposited, reacted or collected at surfaces.

Cooks is currently a distinguished professor of chemistry at Purdue University with interests in the construction of mass spectrometers and their use in fundamental studies and applications.

Early in his career, Cooks worked on energy partitioning during metastable ion fragmentation and contributed to the concept and implementation of tandem mass spectrometry from and to desorption ionization, especially matrix-based methods. His interest in minimizing sample work-up and avoiding chromatography contributed to the development of the ambient ionization methods, including desorption electrospray ionization (DESI). Applications of this method in tissue imaging, forensics and pharmaceutics are in progress. His work also led to the construction of miniature ion trap mass spectrometers and their application to problems of trace chemical detection. His interests in the fundamentals of ion chemistry include chiral analysis and spontaneous chiral resolution in clusters and the possible role of the amino acid serine in the biochemical origins of life.

Cooks holds Ph.D. from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg and Cambridge University, U.K.. The distinguished professor has served as the President of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry and the International Mass Spectrometry Society and is a Life Member of the British Mass Spectrometry Society. Cooks has had the pleasure of working with several hundred collaborators from around the world including more than 100 Ph. D. students.

Tuesday, January 26; 9 am — Featured Plenary Speaker

Distilling Freeform Natural Laws from Experimental Data—From Robotics to Molecular Biology
A key challenge to finding analytic relationships automatically is defining algorithmically what makes a correlation in observed data significant and non-trivial. This talk will propose a new principle for the identification of natural laws directly from observations. The effectiveness of this approach will be demonstrated by automatically searching data from a variety of mechanical and biological systems, from robotics to metabolic networks.

As an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and computing and information science at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, Lipson has led and directed work in areas such as evolutionary robotics, multi-material functional rapid prototyping, machine self-replication and programmable self-assembly. Currently, Lipson directs the Computational Synthesis group, which focuses on novel ways for automatic design, fabrication and adaptation of virtual and physical machines. His research focuses primarily on biologically inspired approaches. Lipson holds a Ph.D. from the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology and postdoctoral degrees from Brandeis University and MIT.

Wednesday, January 27; 12:45 pm — Awards Luncheon & Closing Ceremony

A true American science fiction author, Sterling is best known for his novels and seminal work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre. Sterling has written eight science fiction novels and three short story collections taking away several awards for his work. The author also travels the world extensively giving speeches and attending conferences.

Bruce has appeared on ABC's Nightline, BBC's The Late Show, CBC's Morningside, MTV, and in the Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Nature, The New York Times, and Der Spiegel.