Manu Prakash is an Indian scientist who is a professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. Manu was born in Meerut, India. He is best known for his contributions to the Foldscope[1] and Paperfuge.[2] Prakash received the MacArthur Fellowship in September 2016. He and his team at Stanford University have developed a synchronous computer that operates using the physics of moving water droplets.[3] His work focuses on frugal innovation that makes medicine, computing and microscopy accessible to more people across the world.[4][5][6]

Manu Prakash
Prakash at TED (2017)
Alma materMIT, IIT Kanpur
Known forFoldscope, Paperfuge
AwardsMacArthur Fellows Program (2016), TED Senior Fellow (2011)
Scientific career
FieldsBioengineering
InstitutionsStanford University
Doctoral advisorNeil Gershenfeld

Early life and education

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Manu Prakash was born in Meerut, India. He earned a BTech in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and an M.S. and PhD in Applied Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[7]

Notable work

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Foldscope

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A Foldscope is an optical microscope that can be assembled from simple components, including a sheet of paper and a lens. It was developed by Jim Cybulski and Manu Prakash and designed to cost less than US$1 to build. It is part of the "frugal science" movement, which aims to make cheap and easy tools available for scientific use in the developing world.[8]

Paperfuge

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Paperfuge is a hand-powered ultralow-cost paper centrifuge designed by Manu Prakash and members of the Prakash Lab. Inspired by the whirlygig toy configuration, Dr. Manu designed a centrifuge using the toy's design and Supercoiling-mediated ultrafast spinning dynamics. The Paperfuge can be used to separate Plasma and RBC for rapid Malaria diagnosis in remote areas.[9][10][11]

Awards

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TED Fellow 2009, TED Fellow 2010, TED Senior Fellow 2011[12]

Gates Foundation Global Health “Explorations” Grant 2012[13]

NIH Director's New Innovator Award 2015[14]

MacArthur Fellow 2016[15]

Unilever Colworth Prize 2020[16]

References

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  1. ^ "A Microscope to Save the World". The New Yorker. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  2. ^ "The Paperfuge: A 20-Cent Device That Could Transform Health Care". Wired. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  3. ^ https://news.stanford.edu/2015/06/08/computer-water-drops-060815/
  4. ^ MacArthur Foundation. "Manu Prakash". Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  5. ^ John Markoff, "Science Tools anyone can afford", New York Times April 21, 2014 [1] Accessed 21 July 2019.
  6. ^ "TED Fellows". Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  7. ^ Stanford University. "Manu Prakash". Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  8. ^ Cybulski, James S.; Clements, James; Prakash, Manu (18 June 2014). "Foldscope: Origami-Based Paper Microscope". PLOS ONE. 9 (6): e98781. arXiv:1403.1211. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...998781C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0098781. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4062392. PMID 24940755.
  9. ^ Lifesaving scientific tools made of paper | Manu Prakash, retrieved 7 February 2020
  10. ^ Bhamla, M. Saad; Benson, Brandon; Chai, Chew; Katsikis, Georgios; Johri, Aanchal; Prakash, Manu (10 January 2017). "Hand-powered ultralow-cost paper centrifuge". Nature Biomedical Engineering. 1 (1): 1–7. doi:10.1038/s41551-016-0009. ISSN 2157-846X.
  11. ^ "A low-cost, hand-powered paper centrifuge". National Institutes of Health (NIH). 30 January 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  12. ^ "Manu Prakash's TED Profile". www.ted.com. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  13. ^ "Bioengineer Prakash wins Gates Foundation global health "Explorations" grant | Bioengineering". bioengineering.stanford.edu. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  14. ^ "NIH Director's New Innovator Award Program - 2015 Award Recipients | NIH Common Fund". commonfund.nih.gov. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  15. ^ "Manu Prakash - MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  16. ^ Society, Microbiology. "News". microbiologysociety.org. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
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