Cunningham chosen to lead Micro and Nanotechnology Lab

2/12/2015

Professor Brian Cunningham has been chosen as the director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory at the University of Illinois.

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Brian T Cunningham
Brian T Cunningham
 
Professor Brian T Cunningham, the Donald Biggar Willett Professor of Engineering, has been chosen as the director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory (MNTL)  at the University of Illinois.
 
His appointment is effective February 16, 2015, pending approval by the University’s Board of Trustees.
 
“I am very pleased that Professor Cunningham has agreed to serve as the next MNTL director,” said Andreas C Cangellaris, dean of the College of Engineering, and the M. E. Van Valkenburg Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. “His enthusiasm and bold vision for the future of MNTL as a driver of groundbreaking research in nanosciences and nanotechnology promise a bright future for the laboratory and its global impact. His highly-visible scholarship, his successful translation of nanophotonics innovations to technologies and devices for biosensing applications, and his multi-faceted experience in leading interdisciplinary teams on successful center activities, have made him the perfect choice for the job.”
 
MNTL is a multidisciplinary research facility in the College of Engineering that houses advanced equipment to support research in photonics, microelectronics, nanotechnology, and biotechnology.
 
A leader in the area of nanophotonics and biosensing, Cunningham has extensive administrative and leadership experiences from a variety of positions at Sandia National Laboratory, Raytheon Research Division, Draper Laboratory, and his own startup company, SRU Biosystems. As a faculty member, he has been a proactive contributor to the establishment and growth of the Department of Bioengineering. He was instrumental in the development of an interdisciplinary graduate program in bioengineering and the first master of engineering degree in bio-instrumentation.
 
In addition to serving as director of the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Innovative Instrumentation Technology, Cunningham has served as MNTL’s acting director for the past year.
 
An ECE ILLINOIS alumnus, Cunningham (BSCompE '86, MS '87, PhD '90) has received many awards and honors, including fellow status with IEEE, the Optical Society of America, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2010, he received the IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award and the EMBS Technical Achievement Award, and was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2014.

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This story was published February 12, 2015.