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Manu Prakash

Keynote Speaker | University of Stanford

Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Oceans and of Biology

Bio

We use interdisciplinary approaches including theory and experiments to understand how computation is embodied in biological matter. Examples include cognition in single cell protists and morphological computing in animals with no neurons and origins of complex behavior in multi-cellular systems. Broadly, we invent new tools for studying non-model organisms with significant focus on life in the ocean - addressing fundamental questions such as how do cells sense pressure or gravity? Finally, we are dedicated towards inventing and distributing “frugal science” tools to democratize access to science (previous inventions used worldwide: Foldscope, Abuzz), diagnostics of deadly diseases like malaria and convening global citizen science communities to tackle planetary scale environmental challenges such as mosquito surveillance or plankton surveillance by citizen sailors mapping the ocean in the age of Anthropocene.

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Core Leadership Team, Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health (2017 - Present)

  • Board member,, Jasper Ridge Reserve, Stanford (https://jrbp.stanford.edu) (2017 - Present)

Honors & Awards

  • MIT Ideas Sustainability Prize, MIT (2003)

  • Lemelson MIT Student Finalist Award, Lemelson Foundation (2008)

  • Junior Fellow (Physics), Harvard Society of Fellows (2008-2011)

  • Frederick E. Terman Fellow, Stanford University (2011-2013)

  • TED Senior Fellow, Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) (2011-2013)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Co-founder, Foldscope Instruments (2017 - Present)

  • Board Member, Ciencia Puerto Rico (https://www.cienciapr.org) (2017 - Present)

  • Board Member, PIVOT (http://pivotworks.org) (2017 - Present)

Professional Education

  • Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Field of Study: Applied Physics (MAS) (2008)

  • M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Field of Study: Applied Physics (MAS) (2004)

  • B.Tech, Indian Institute of Technology, Field of Study: Computer Science and Engineering (2002)

Community and International Work

  • Planktoscope

  • Octopi: Malaria diagnostics platform

  • Foldscope, India

  • Low-cost scanning of oral cavity, Kenya and India

Patents

  • Manu Prakash, Anesta KOTHARIAdam George LarsonShailabh KumarHazel Soto-Montoya. "United States Patent WO2022071996A1 Co-axial plunger based home molecular diagnostics kit", Leland Stanford Junior University, Sep 30, 2020

  • Manu Prakash, Hongquan LI. "United States Patent WO2020242978A1 A spectral imaging platform for infectious disease diagnosis", Leland Stanford Junior University, May 24, 2019

  • Zhang, S., Mershin, A., Kaiser, K., Cook, B., Graveland-Bikker, J.F., Prakash, M., Kong, D., Maguire, Y.,. "United States Patent US9714941 Bio-sensing nanodevice", Jul 25, 2017

  • Manu Prakash, Deepak Krishnamurthy. "United States Patent US11033006B2 Hydrodynamic treadmill: a tracking device to study biotic/abiotic systems in gravitational and hydrodynamic fields", Leland Stanford Junior University,, Jun 28, 2017

  • Manu Prakash, Georgios Katsikis. "United States Patent US20160339425A1 Synchronous Universal Droplet Logic", Leland Stanford Junior University, May 17, 2017