Milne Lecture: Frontier Developments in Bioelectronics, Professor John A. Rogers

Abstract

Advanced electronic/optoelectronic technologies designed to allow stable, intimate integration with living organisms will accelerate progress in biomedical research; they will also serve as the foundations for new approaches in monitoring and treating diseases. Specifically, capabilities for injecting miniaturized, biocompatible electronic systems and other components into soft tissues or for softly laminating them onto the surfaces of vital organs will open up unique and important opportunities in tracking and manipulating biological activity.

This presentation describes the core concepts in materials science, circuit design and manufacturing that underpin these types of technologies, including bioresorbable, or ‘transient’, devices engineered to disappear into the body on timescales matched to natural processes. Examples include skin-like devices for health monitoring and bioelectronic ‘medicines’ for neuroregeneration and temporary cardiac pacing.

Biography

Professor John A. Rogers obtained BA and BS degrees in chemistry and in physics from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1989. From MIT, he received SM degrees in physics and in chemistry in 1992 and a PhD degree in physical chemistry in 1995. From 1995 to 1997, Rogers was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard University Society of Fellows.

He joined Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff in 1997 and then served as Director of the Condensed Matter Physics Research Department from the end of 2000 to 2002.

He then spent thirteen years on the faculty at the University of Illinois, most recently as the Swanlund Chair Professor and Director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory.

In the Fall of 2016, he moved to Northwestern University where he is Director of the recently endowed Querrey-Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics.

He has co-authored nearly 1000 papers and he is co-inventor on more than 100 patents, more than 70 of which are licensed to large companies or to startups that have emerged from his labs.

His research has been recognized by many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship (2009), the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2011), the Smithsonian Award for American Ingenuity in the Physical Sciences (2013), the MRS Medal (2018), the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute (2019), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2021), the James Prize for Science and Technology Integration from the NAS (2022) and the IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award (2024).

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Further information

Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano System (IMNS): https://eng.ed.ac.uk/research/institu...
The Milne Lecture Series: https://eng.ed.ac.uk/about/events/mil...
The School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh: https://eng.ed.ac.uk/