BioEngineering Summit 2019 Keynote Speakers

Albert Folch Professor of Bioengineering, University of Washington Albert Folch’s lab works at the interface between microfluidics and cancer. He received both his BSc (1989) and PhD (1994) in Physics from the University of Barcelona (UB), Spain, in 1989. During his Ph.D. he was a visiting scientist from 1990–91 at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab working on AFM/STM under Dr. Miquel Salmeron. From 1994–1996, he was a postdoc at MIT developing MEMS under Martin Schmidt (EECS) and Mark Wrighton (Chemistry). In 1997, he joined Mehmet Toner’s lab as a postdoc at Harvard-MGH to apply soft lithography to tissue engineering. He has been at Seattle’s UW BioE since June 2000, where he is now a full Professor, accumulating over 12,000 citations. In 22 years, he has supervised 19 postdocs (16% of whom have reached faculty rank), 36 graduate students (12 Ph.D. students, 25% of whom faculty rank, and 24 M.S. students), and ~43 undergraduates. In 2001 he received an NSF Career Award, and in 2014 he was elected to the AIMBE College of Fellows (Class of 2015). He served on the Advisory Board of Lab on a Chip 2010-2016 and serves on the Editorial Board of Micromachines since 2019. In 2022 he was elected a member of the Institute for Catalan Studies, one of the highest honors bestowed on Catalan scientists. He is the author of 5 books (sole author), including Introduction to BioMEMS (2012, Taylor&Francis), a textbook adopted by >103 departments in 18 countries, and Hidden in Plain Sight (MIT Press, 2022). Since 2007, the lab runs a celebrated outreach art program called BAIT (Bringing Art Into Technology), which has produced seven exhibits, a popular resource gallery of >2,000 free images related to microfluidics and microfabrication, and a YouTube channel that plays microfluidic videos with music which accumulate ~163,000 visits since 2009.
Michael McAlpine Kuhrmeyer Family Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota Michael C. McAlpine is the Kuhrmeyer Family Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He received a B.S. (2000) in Chemistry with honors from Brown University, and a Ph.D. (2006) in Chemistry from Harvard University. His current research is focused on 3D printing functional materials & devices for biomedical applications, with recent breakthroughs in 3D printed deformable sensors and 3D printed bionic eyes (one of National Geographic’s 12 Innovations that will Revolutionize the Future of Medicine). He has received several awards for this work, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), and the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award.
Stephanie Willerth Professor and Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering, University of Victoria and CEO – Axolotl Biosciences Dr. Willerth, a Full Professor in Biomedical Engineering, holds a Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria where she has dual appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Medical Sciences. She also holds an appointment with the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. She serves as the Acting Director of the Centre for Biomedical Research and the Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program at the University of Victoria. She is an active member of the steering committee of the B.C. Regenerative Medicine Initiative and the Stem Cell Network. She also serves as a staff scientist at Creative Destruction Lab. She also was the President of the Canadian Biomaterials Society– serving a three-year term as President-Elect then President and Past President from 2017-2019. She recently founded the start-up company - Axolotl Biosciences.
Joyce Wong Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering, Boston University Dr. Joyce Y. Wong is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at Boston University. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). Her research is in the area of developing biomaterials for the early detection and treatment of disease. Her current projects include pediatric bioengineered blood vessel patches, ultrasound contrast agents to detect and treat abdominal surgical adhesions, and biomaterials for reproductive health. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications, 11 pending or issued patents, a graduate of the NSF Innovation-CORPS program, and has mentored over 100 trainees. In 2017 she received the Charles DeLisi Distinguished Lecture and Award, the highest honor in Boston University’s College of Engineering. She is on the editorial board of several journals and in 2017 was a Volume Organizer for the Materials Research Society Bulletin. She is an Associate Editor of the journal Drug Delivery and Translational Research. In 2014, as the Inaugural Director of a Boston University Provost Initiative promoting women in STEM at all levels, she launched ARROWS (Advance, Recruit, Retain & Organize Women in STEM). In 2018, she received the Advocate of the Year AWARD from BU GWISE (Graduate Women in Science and Engineering). In 2019, she led the BU team in receiving an AAAS SEA (STEM Equity Achievement) Change Bronze Award. She most recently became Director of Outreach for BU’s NASA-funded SHIELD DRIVE Science Center. She is currently Chair of College of Fellows for AIMBE. In 2020, she received the Clemson Award for Basic Research from the Society for Biomaterials.