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Manu Prakash | |
|---|---|
| Born | Meerut, India |
| Alma mater | MIT, IIT Kanpur |
| Known for | Foldscope, Paperfuge |
| Awards | MacArthur Fellows Program (2016) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Bioengineering |
| Institutions | Stanford University |
Manu Prakash is an Indian born scientist who was an assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University. Manu was born in Meerut, India and earned a BTech in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. Prakash received his P.h.D from Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT). He is best known for his Foldscope[1] and Paperfuge.[2] Prakash received the MacArthur Fellowship in September 2016. He and his team are also working on a water droplet based computer in Stanford University. His work focuses on frugal innovation that makes medicine, computing and microscopy accessible to more people across the world. [3]
Discovery
A few years back in 2016, Prakash went to Uganda and while there, visited a clinic. He noticed that the staffers were using an expensive centrifuge ("used to separate fluids from solids" and vice versa) to hold the door open. This was because, there was no electricity. Now, Prakash had definitely been acclimated to seeing those types of work and living conditions, but felt bad in the sense that, these staffers could be using this expensive centrifuge to help cure people. Manu Prakash gathered information and talked with many researchers to create an affordable and able to use by everyone, centrifuge. Prakash and others involved helped gather toys that practically had the same structural (spinning) concept as a centrifuge. They came up with a Paperfuge: "paper discs fitted with tubes that can hold blood samples, connected to twine strings that allow a user to spin the discs at up to 125,000 rpm, thereby separating out, say, malaria parasites."[4] To continue progressing in the cheaper medicine area, Prakash invented the Foldscope: "an origami inspired paper microscope capable of high-powered imaging, the component materials of which cost just $1." [4] His inventions are used worldwide in 135 countries. Prakash believes that bringing people and communities together can help solve and change problems by having a better and more positive outlook on the problem, which he calls success.
Since Prakash's eye opening Foldscope invention, he opened a laboratory dedicated to doing further research and projects on water computers, paper microscopes, and biophysics. While, working on further research (such as physics), which he describes as "just good old natural history." [5]
References
edit- ^ "A Microscope to Save the World". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2016-09-26.
- ^ "The Paperfuge: A 20-Cent Device That Could Transform Health Care". Wired. Retrieved 2017-01-10.
- ^ MacArthur Foundation. "Manu Prakash". Retrieved 2016-09-26.
- ^ a b "25 People Shaping the Future". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
- ^ "manu-prakash". dora.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 2018-02-25.
External links
editCategory:Living people Category:IIT Kanpur alumni Category:Stanford University faculty Category:American inventors Category:American academics of Indian descent Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area
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