Cunningham chosen as interim director of MNTL

ECE Professor Brian T Cunningham has been named interim director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory (MNTL) at the University of Illinois effective August 16, 2013.

“Professor Cunningham has distinguished himself as one of the most creative and prolific innovators and inventors in miniature sensors in the world,” said Andreas C Cangellaris, dean of the College of Engineering at Illinois. “His highly-visible role in the diversification and growth of nanotechnology-enabled bio-sensing at MNTL and in our college, his bold vision about unique opportunities at the intersection of physical electronics, photonics and biology, and his entrepreneurial approach to the pursuit of new devices and new technologies, make him a natural choice for the position of interim director of MNTL.”

An Illinois alumnus, Cunningham (PhD '90) became a full-time faculty member in 2004. Since returning to campus, he has been an integral member of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory and an active contributor in several nanotechnology-centric inter-disciplinary research teams in the College and the University. In addition to his appointment in ECE, Cunningham is also a professor in the Bioengineering Department.

Cunningham also leads the NSF-funded Center for Agricultural, Biomedical, and Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology (CABPN) that brings together research capabilities from the College of Engineering and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences to pursue – through nanotechnology and with close collaboration with industry – a wide range of problems related to pathogen detection, drug delivery (to humans or food animals), plants with pharmaceutical properties, food spoilage, and disease diagnostics.

A Fellow of the IEEE and of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Cunningham has received several distinctions for his scholarly and professional contributions. He also is affiliated with the Institute for Genomic Biology, and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois.