Ratna Tantra's Biography

Ratna Tantra, Senior Research Scientist , National Physical Laboratory

Dr. Ratna Tantra is Senior Scientist at National Physical Laboratory (NPL) UK. She has been at NPL for 12 years. Since joining NPL, she has worked in numerous projects, across different discipline areas, first in biotechnology before moving to nanoanalysis. Her research at NPL is in the field of micro- and nano-science technology. Her interest in microfluidics began in 1997, when she took up her first postdoctoral position at Imperial College. Funded by Schlumberger Cambridge Research Centre, the work was focused to develop microfluidic based sensor used for the purpose of oil drilling; the work resulted in the filing of several patents. Her second position was at University of Glasgow; here she was mainly working to develop state of the art biochip sensors. At NPL, her interest in microfluidics continued, but her main focus now is on the understanding of reliability of microfluidic devices. Currently, she has joined a pan-European project that brings together major players in the microfluidics field, whose vision is to bring manufacturing of microfluidic devices to the same level of maturity and industrialisation as electronic devices. Hence, she is involved in standardisation activities.

She is a Chartered Scientist, Chartered Chemist and member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.