Keynote Speakers

Professor Sandra Troian (Plenary Abstract)

Prof. Sandra M. Troian is the Director of the Laboratory of Interfacial and Small Scale Transport at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. She received her B.A. in Physics from Harvard University (1980) and her M.S. (1984) and PhD degree (1987) in condensed matter physics from Cornell University. From 1987- 89, she was a postdoctoral research associate at the Corporate Research Laboratories of Exxon Research & Eng. Co. With sponsorship from a Chateaubriand Research Fellowship (1989-90), she continued postdoctoral study at the Collège de France (Paris) under the supervision of Prof. P. G. de Gennes (1991 Nobel Laureate in Physics). Dr. Troian rejoined Exxon in the fall of 1990 as a Staff Physicist and from 1991-1993 also served as Industrial Consulting Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University. In 1993, Dr. Troian joined Princeton University where she taught and conducted research for 13 years in the departments of Physics, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Applied and Computational Mathematics. She joined the California Institute of Technology in late fall 2006 as Professor of Applied Physics, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering. Her current research focuses of the behavior and stability of fluidic systems at the micro/nanoscale with emphasis on nonlinear wave phenomena triggered by surface forces. Of special interest are systems involving transport of mass, momentum, heat and light along moving interfaces.

Dr. Troian is recipient of several awards including a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Initiation Award (1994), an NSF Career Award (1996), an NSF POWRE award (1999), American Physical Society François N. Frenkiel Award (1999), Princeton Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Teaching (1999), Caltech Moore Distinguished Scholar award (2004-05), Fellow of the American Physical Society (2005), and Caltech ASCIT Teaching Award (2009). Dr. Troian has also served on a number of editorial and advisory boards including the Defense Sciences Research Council of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Washington, DC), Institute for Defense Analysis (Alexandria, VA), Annual Reviews of Fluid Mechanics, Physics of Fluids, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (Santa Barbara, CA), Microdevices Laboratory of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA), Society of Engineering Science, and Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation (Göttingen, Germany).

Professor Roger D. Kamm (Keynote Abstract)

Roger D. Kamm is the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering at MIT and Director of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems. A primary objective of Kamm’s research group has been the application of fundamental concepts in fluid and solid mechanics to better understand essential biological and physiological phenomena. His lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms of cellular force sensation, and the development of new microfluidic technologies for vascularized engineered tissues and models of metastatic cancer. Kamm is the recipient of numerous awards including the ASME Lissner Award and the Europen Society of Biomechanics Huiskes Medal. He was elected to be a member of the Institute of Medicine in 2010.

Professor Gian Luca Morini (Keynote Abstract)

Gian Luca Morini is Full Professor of Applied Thermal Engineering at the Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna since 2002, where he directs the Applied Thermal Engineering & Microfluidics Laboratory of the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Bologna. He received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering at University of Bologna, Italy in 1995 and he is currently member of the Board of Professors of the Ph. D. School in Mechanical Engineering of the same University. His main research interests lie in microscale heat transfer, forced convection, energy efficient buildings and renewable energy sources. He is author of 150 technical papers in the areas of heat transfer, micro heat exchangers, heating and cooling systems. He is member of many international scientific organizations like UIT (Italian Union of Thermal Fluid-dynamics), the EUROTHERM Committee, the Scientific Committee of the Société Hydrotechnique de France (SHF), the Scientific Council of International Center of Heat and Mass Transfer (ICHMT) and the Assembly of the World Conference (AWC) on Experimental Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics, and Thermodynamics. He has been Guest Editor for a series of Special issues on Microfluidics appeared in the following journals: Experimental Heat Transfer, Microfluidics & Nanofluidics, Microsystems Technologies, Bio-Microfluidics and L’Houille Blanche. Prof. Morini is co-Chair with Prof. Stephane Colin and Dr. J.J. Brandner of the European Conference on Microfluidics (mFlu) and he hosted the first edition of this series of Conference at Bologna in December, 2008.

Dr-Ing habil Jürgen Brandner (Keynote Abstract)

Jürgen J. Brandner read Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg and Electrical Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe. In 2003 he obtained his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe, followed by his Habilitation in Process Engineering at the Technical University of Dresden in 2008. He is a scientist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) since 1996 and is currently head of the Process Technology Department (PTE) of the Institute for Micro Process Engineering (IMVT). In 2009 the Technical University of Dresden bestowed him the Linde Award for the Best Habilitation Thesis. In both, 2014 and 2015 he was awarded the “NEULAND” Innovation Award by KIT. Jürgen’s research interest include miniaturization and process intensification, fluid flow at micro scale including heat and mass transfer, improvement of heat transfer, phase transition processes, integrated sensors and actuators, in-situ measurement methods, process development and transfer into application.

Professor Vladimir V. Kuznetsov (Keynote Abstract)

Vladimir V. Kuznetsov is the Head of the Department of Thermophysics of Multiphase Systems at the Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia since 2002. He is Professor of the Faculty of Physics of Novosibirsk State University since 1995. His work focuses on fundamental studies of thermal and fluid transport phenomena with phase change at microscales and nanoscales, gas-liquid flow and flow boiling heat transfer in micro/minichannels, explosive evaporation in microsystems, nanofluid flow in porous media, catalytic reactions in microscale. It covers the development of microcooling systems, compact evaporators and condensers, microreactors for hydrogen production. Prof. Kuznetsov received his Ph.D. in 1978 and the degree of Doctor of Science in 1995 at Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics, Russia. He is the author of about 260 journal and conference publications and of two books related to modelling of microflow with phase change. He is a member of National Committee for Heat and Mass Transfer of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the editorial board for Journal of Engineering Thermophysics.

Professor Carlotta Guiducci (Keynote Abstract)

Carlotta Guiducci joined EPFL in 2009 as an assistant professor with the Institute of Bioengineering and the Institute of Electrical Engineering, holding the swissUp foundation Chair. She received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Bologna. She was a visiting scientist at Minatech, Grenoble (France) and ParisTech (ESPCI). She is the recipient of the Intel Early Career Faculty Award for her contribution in the field of label-free biosensors and 3D integration of biochips.

Her work on integrated microsystems for bioanalytics and an interview on the role of Semiconductors in personalized medicine have been featured in “IET Electronics Letters” in 2012. In 2013, she has been invited by Nature Methods to comment on the novel pH-based electronic solutions for quantitative PCR

Associate Professor Pietro Asinari (Keynote Abstract)

Pietro Asinari received his B.S. and M.S. (summa cum laude) in Mechanical Engineering in 2001 and his Ph.D. in Energetics in 2005 from Politecnico di Torino. In 2005, he won the ENI Award. He is the Director of the Multi-Scale Modeling Laboratory - SMaLL - (www.polito.it/small) and Associate Professor of Applied Physics. He is member of the operational management board of the European Materials Modelling Council - EMMC - (http://emmc.info) and operational team manager of the working group on discrete modelling of materials. He is member of the International Scientific Committee of the International Conference for Mesoscopic Methods in Engineering and Science (ICMMES) and member of the Editorial Board of the international journal Computation. He is the Principal Investigator of many projects on materials modeling (including THERMALSKIN and NANOBRIDGE). Since 2002, he has (co-) authored over 70 publications (54 peer-reviewed articles, 34 as senior author) about multi-scale modelling in nanotechnology and biotechnology.

More info: http://www.polito.it/small

Professor Srinivas Garimella (Keynote Abstract)

Prof. Srinivas Garimella is the Hightower Chair in Engineering and Director of the Sustainable Thermal Systems Laboratory at Georgia Institute of Technology. He received M. S. and Ph.D. degrees from The Ohio State University, and a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He has held prior positions as Research Scientist at Battelle Memorial Institute, Senior Engineer at General Motors Corp., and Associate Professor at Western Michigan University and Iowa State University. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, past Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, and Editor of the International Journal of Air-conditioning and Refrigeration. He has also served as Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Energy Resources Technology, and Past Chair of the Advanced Energy Systems Division of ASME. He was an Associate Editor of the ASHRAE HVAC&R Research Journal and Chair of the ASHRAE Technical Committee on Absorption and Heat Operated Machines, and was on the ASHRAE Research Administration Committee. He held the William and Virginia Binger Associate Professorship of Mechanical Engineering at ISU from 1999-2001. He has mentored over 70 graduate students, with his research resulting in over 225 archival journal and conference publications, a textbook on Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Minichannels and Microchannels (2nd Ed., Elsevier 2014), and a book on Condensation Heat Transfer (World Scientific Publishing, 2015.) He has been awarded eight patents. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (1999), the ASHRAE New Investigator Award (1998), the SAE Ralph E. Teetor Educational Award for Engineering Educators (1998), and was the Iowa State University Miller Faculty Fellow (1999-2000) and Woodruff Faculty Fellow (2003-2008) at Georgia Tech. He received the ASME Award for Outstanding Research Contributions in the Field of Two-Phase Flow and Condensation in Microchannels, 2012. He also received the Thomas French Distinguished Educator Achievement Award (2008) from The Ohio State University, and the Zeigler Outstanding Educator Award (2012) at Georgia Tech.