Chong H. Ahn, Ph.D. Distinguished University Research Professor

M.P. Kartalia Chair Professor of BioMEMS Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science   College of Engineering and Applied Science   University of Cincinnati Director   MicroSystems and BioMEMS Lab   Center for BioMEMS and Nanobiosciences   Department of Biomedical Engineering   University of Cincinnati   Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0030 Contact:   Tel: (513) 556-4767   Fax: (513) 556-7326   E-mail: chong.ahn@uc.edu   Web-page: http://www.biomems.uc.edu

Education

Inha University, S. Korea Electrical Engineering B.S., 1980 Seoul National University, S. Korea Electrical Engineering M.S., 1983 Georgia Institute of Technology, GA Electrical and Computer Eng. Ph.D., 1993

Professional Experience

April 2019 – Present: Distinguished University Research Professor, University of Cincinnati May 2016 – Present: Director, Engineering Research Center (ERC) Clean Room, and Ohio Center for Microfluidic Innovation (OCMI) at UC. May 2010 – Present: Michell P. Kartalia Chair and Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Cincinnati Dec. 2004 – Present: Director, Center for BioMEMS and Nanobiosystems, University of Cincinnati Nov. 2002 – Present: Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering (Secondary), University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio Sept. 2001 – Present: Professor, Director, Microsystems and BioMEMS Lab Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. Sept. 1998 – Aug. 2001: Associate Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science.  University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. Oct. 1994 – Aug. 1998: Assistant Professor, Associate Director, Center for Microelectronic Sensors and MEMS (CMSM), Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science.  University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. June 1993 – Oct. 1994: Post Doctoral Associate (Advisor: Dr. Luby Romankiw, IBM Fellow), Center for Electrochemical Technology and Microfabrication (CETAM), IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, New York/ Post Doctoral Associate (Advisor: Prof. Mark G. Allen), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.

Editor or Editorial Board

Editor (2006 – Present) IEEE/ASME Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Editorial Board (2003 – Present) Nano/Micro Small Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering (JMM) Journal of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics Associate Editor (2003 – 2005) IEEE Sensors Journal

Awards and Honors

Distinguished University Research Professor, University of Cincinnati (2019) Research Award, College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS), University of Cincinnati (2018) Fellow, The Graduate School, University of Cincinnati (2018 – ) Distinguished Research Faculty Award, CEAS, University of Cincinnati (2017) Established Entrepreneur Faculty Achievement Award of UC (2011) The Best Journal Paper Award of The IEEE Sensors Journal (2009) Emerging Entrepreneur Faculty Achievement Award of UC (2008) Appointed and honored as "Distinguished Engineering Researcher", College of Engineeing, University of Cincinnati (2006) Fellow, The Institute of Physics (2004) NASA Group Achievement Award, NASA, Glennan Microsystems Initiative Technical Team, UC (2004) Scientific Leadership Award, 4th Annual BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology WORLD (2003) 1st Tutorial Lecturer for Magnetic MEMS, IEEE Magnetic Society, INTERMAG (2001) Honor Roll Professor, College of Engineering Tribunal, University of Cincinnati (2000). 2nd Best Paper Award (out of 400 conference papers) from 13th European Conference on Solid-State Transducers, The Hageue, The Netherlands (1999). Research Award, College of Engineering (CoE), University of Cincinnati (1998). Middendorf Research Excellent Award' 98, Department of ECECS, University of Cincinnati (1998).

Research Interests

Development and characterization of magnetic MEMS and BioMEMS, which includes magnetic sensors, magnetic biofilters, biochemical detection cell, microfluidic devices, disposable smart plastic lab-on-a-chips, protein chips, and point-of-care testing systems, with relevant biochemical transduction mechanisms.

Patent Applications

A. Puntambekar, J. Kai, S. lee and Chong H. Ahn, “Microfluidic Assay Platforms,” U.S. Patent 9919311 B2, issued March 30, 2018. A. Puntambekar, J. Kai, S. lee and Chong H. Ahn, “Microfluidic Analytical Platform”, Japan Patent 5663574B2, issued February 04, 2015. Chong H. Ahn, Raj Narayan, and Chunyan Li, “Flexible Spirally-Rolled Polymer Tube for Monitoring and Treatment of Brain Injuries”, US Patent 8628493, issued January 14, 2014; U.S. Kang, K.A. and C.H. Ahn, “Fiber-Optic Biosensor and Biosensing Methods”, U.S. Patent 8,563,328, issued October 22, 2013. C. H. Ahn, et.al, “Smart Disposable Plastic Lab-on-a-Chip for Point-of-Care Testing”, U.S. Patent 7524464, issued March, 2009. C. H. Ahn, et. al., “On-chip Sample Preparation for Whole Blood Analysis” US patent 7476326, issued April, 2009. C. H. Ahn, D. J. Sadler, W. Zhang, "Electromagnetically Driven Microactuated Device and Method of Making The Same," U.S. Patent, 6116863, Issued 9/12/2000. Chong H. Ahn and Mark Allen, "A Fully Integrated Magnetic Micromotor and Methods for Their Fabrication," U.S. Patent # 5710466, Issued by 01/20/1998. Chong H. Ahn and Mark Allen, "A Fully Integrated Micromachined Magnetic Particle Manipulator and Separator," U.S. Patent # 5655665, Issued by 8/12/1997. 9 US patent pending.

Publications (Selective Recent Publications)

S. Ghosh, G.K.Kurup, A.P.Lee and C.H.Ahn , “A mass manufacturable thermoplastic based microfluidic droplet generator on Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC)” Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 29,2019,055009 Ghosh, Sthitodhi and Chong H. Ahn. "Lyophilization of chemiluminescent substrate reagents for high-sensitive microchannel-based lateral flow assay (MLFA) in point-of-care (POC) diagnostic system." Analyst 144.6 (2019): 2109-2119. Dat Thinh Ha, Sthitodhi Ghosh, Chong H. Ahn, David J. Segal and Moon-Soo Kim, "Pathogen-specific DNA sensing with engineered Zinc finger proteins immobilized on a polymer Chip," Analyst, 2018, 143, 4009?4016. Sthitodhi Ghosh, Kevin Margatan, Chong H. Ahn, Je-Hyeong Bahk, “Radiant heat recovery by thermoelectric generators: A theoretical case-study on hot steel casting,” Energy Conversion and Management, 175 (2018) 327?336. Joon S. Shim, Jia Geng, Chong H. Ahn and Peixuan Guo, "Formation of lipid byelayers inside microfluidic channel array for monitoring membrane-embedded nanoporesof phi29DNA packaging nanomotor",  Biomedical Microdevices: Volume 14, Issue 5 (2012), Page 921-928 W. Jung, A. Jang, P.L. Bishop, C.H. Ahn, “A polymer lab chip sensor with microfabricated planar silver electrode for continuous and on-site heavy metal measurement”, Sensors and Actuators, B: Chemical, Article in Press, 2010. A. Jang, Z. Zou, K.K. Lee, C.H. Ahn, P.L. Bishop, “Potentiometric and voltammetric polymer lab chip sensors for determination of nitrate, pH and Cd(II) in water”, Talanta, Vol. 83, pp. 1-8, 2010. J.S. Shim, A.W. Browne, C.H. Ahn, “An on-chip whole blood/plasma separator with bead-packed microchannel on COC polymer”, Biomedical Microdevices, Vol. 12, pp. 949-957, 2010. J.S. Shim, Y.H. Yun, W. Cho, V. Shanov, M.J. Schulz, C.H. Ahn, “Self-aligned nanogaps on multilayer electrodes for fluidic and magnetic assembly of carbon nanotubes”, Langmuir, Vol. 26, pp. 11642-11647, 2010. C. Li, L.A. Shutter, P.M. Wu, C.H. Ahn, R.K. Narayan, “Potential of a simple lab-on-a-tube for point-of-care measurements of multiple analytes”, Lab on a Chip, Vol. 10, pp. 1476-1479, 2010. M.J. Rust, C.H. Ahn, “Nanoparticle assemblies on nanoinjection-molded polymer templates”, IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology, Vol. 9, pp. 93-98, 2010. C.A. Currie, J.S. Shim, S.H. Lee, C.H. Ahn, P.A. Limbach, H.B. Halsall, W.R. Heineman, “Comparing polyelectrolyte multilayer-coated PMMA microfluidic devices and glass microchips for electrophoretic separations”, Electrophoresis, Vol. 30, pp. 4245-4250, 2009. Jang, Z. Zou, E. MacKnight, P. M. Wu, I. S. Kim, C. H. Ahn and P. L. Bishop, "Development of a portable analyzer with polymer lab-on-a-chip (LOC) for continuous sampling and monitoring of Pb(II)," Water Science & Technology, vol. 60, pp. 2889-2896, 2009 M. D. Estes, B. Ouyang, S.-M. Ho, C. H. Ahn, "Isolation of prostate cancer cell subpopulations of functional interest by use of an on-chip magnetic bead-based cell separator," Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 19 (9), art. no. 095015, 2009 Jang, Z. Zou, E. MacKnight, P. M. Wu, I. S. Kim, C. H. Ahn and P. L. Bishop, "Development of a portable analyzer with polymer lab-on-a-chip (LOC) for continuous sampling and monitoring of Pb(II)," Water Science & Technology, vol. 60, pp. 2889-2896, 2009 J. Wang, B. Hong, J. Kai, J. Han, Z. Zou, C. H. Ahn, K.A. Kang,"Mini sensing chip for point-of-care acute myocardial infarction diagnosis utilizing micro-electro-mechanical system and nano-technology," Advances in experimental medicine and biology 645, pp. 101-107, 2009 W. Browne, K. E. Hitchcock, C. H. Ahn, "A PDMS pinch-valve module embedded in rigid polymer lab chips for on-chip flow regulation," Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 19 (11), art. no. 115012, 2009 Z. Zou, J. Kai,C. H. Ahn, "Electrical characterization of suspended gold nanowire bridges with functionalized self-assembled monolayers using a top-down fabrication method," Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 19 (5), art. no. 055002, 2009 Y.-H. Yun, E. Eteshola, A. Bhattacharya, Z. Dong, J. S. Shim, L. Conforti, D. Kim, M. J. Schulz, C. H. Ahn , N. Watts, "Tiny medicine: Nanomaterial-based biosensors," Sensors 9 (11), pp. 9275-9299, 2009 M. J. Rust and C. H. Ahn, "Nanoparticle Assemblies on Nanoinjection Molded Polymer Templates," IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology, 2009 C. Li, C. H. Ahn, L. A. Shutter and R. K. Narayan "Toward real-time continuous brain glucose and oxygen monitoring with a smart catheter," Biosensors and Bioelectronics 25 (1), pp. 173-178, 2009 J. S. Shim, Y. Yun, M. J Rust, J. Do, V. Shanov, M. J. Schulz, and C. H. Ahn, "The precise self-assembly of individual carbon nanotube using magnetic capturing and fluidic alignment," Nanotechnology, vol. 20, pp. 325607-325613, 2009. C. Li, P.-M. Wu, W. Jung, C. H. Ahn, L. A. Shutter and R. K. Narayan, "A novel lab-on-a-tube for multimodality neuromonitoring of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI)", Lab Chip, Vol. 9, pp. 1988-1990, 2009. A. W. Browne, M. J. Rust, W. Jung, S. H. Lee and C. H. Ahn, "A rapid prototyping method for polymer microfluidics with fixed aspect ratio and 3D tapered channels", Lab Chip, 2009. M. D. Estes, J. Do, and C.H. Ahn, "On-chip cell separator using magnetic bead-based enrichment and depletion of various cell surface markers," Biomedical Microdevices, 10.1007/s10544-008-9257-5. Z. Zou, A. Jang, E. MacKnight, P.-M. Wu, J. Do, J. Shim, P.L. Bishop, and C.H. Ahn, "An on-site heavy metal analyzer with polymer lab-on-a-chips for continuous sampling and monitoring," IEEE Sensors Journal, 2009.

Synergistic Activities

Editor, IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), 2006-Present. Advisory Editorial Board, Journal of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 2003-Present. Advisory Editorial Board, Journal Small, 2004 –2009. Editorial Board, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering  (JMM), 1999 – Present. Associate Editor, IEEE Sensors Journal, 2002 - 2004. Guest Editor, Journal of Biomedical Microdevices, Special Issue on "Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-chip," Vol. 3, 2001. Organizer, ASME MEMS Workshop, "Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-chip Workshop," 2002, 2003. Co-Chairperson, Knowledge Foundations, "BioMEMS Workshop," 2001, 2002, 2003 Technical Program Committee, IEEE International MEMS Conference, 2001, 2003. Technical Program Committee, Transducers Conference, 2005, 2007, 2009 Program Committee, IEEE Nano Conference, 2006

Collaborators Other Than Those Being Cited

Michael G. Bissell, Jae Lee (OSU), J.B. Lee (UT Dallas), Joe. Nevin, Gregory. Beaucage, Bill Heineman, Brian Halsall, Pat Limbark, Carl Seliskar, Ian Papautsky (UC), Ken Wehmeyer (P&G), S. Krishnamoorthy (CFD-RC), Ken Kozack (Meridian Biosciences), Brian Gibler (MD, UC), Edward Jauch (MD, UC), Joseph Clark (UC), Thimothy Cripe (MD, CCHMC), Richard Azizkhan (MD, CCHMC), Sung W. Kim (Harvard Univ.)

Graduate Students and Post-Doctoral Students

>Post-Doctoral Fellows: Dr. Shekhar Bhansali (1998-2000), Dr. S. M. Lee (1999-2000), Dr. Jin-Woo Choi (2001-2002), Dr. Sanghyo Kim (2001-2002), and Dr. Young-Soo Sohn (2001-2002) Ph. D. STUDENTS: Trifon M. Liakopolous (1995-2000), Daniel J. Sadler (1996-2001), Jin Woo Choi (1996-2001), Kwang Wook Oh (1996-2001), Hyoung Jin Cho (1997-2002), Aniruddha Puntambekar (1998-2003), Chien-Chong Hong (1998-2004),  Xiaoshan Zhu (2000-2005), Chuan Gao (2000-2005), Jungyoup Han (2001-2006), Junhai Kai (2001-2006), Japhil Do (2001-2006), Sehwan Lee (2001-), Clayton Sippola (2001-2006), Rong Rong (2000-2007), Sehwan Lee (2001-2007), Mike Rust (2003-2009), Peming Wu (2003-2009), Zhuzwei Zho (2003-2009),  Matt Estes (2004 -2009), Andrew Browun (2005-2009),Junseop Shim (2005-2010), Wooseok Jung (2008-2013), Kangkuk Lee (2009-2014), Zhizhen Wu (2010-2017). MASTER STUDENTS: Wenjin Zhang (1994-1996), Ming Xu (1995-1998), Kurt Kramer (1996-1999), Jeffrey Cropp (1996-1999), Arum Han (1997-2000), Srinivasan Iyengar (1997-1999), Shomir Banejee (1999-2002), Ramachandran Trichur (2000-2001), Sreeram Appasamy (2000-2002), Jaephil Do (2001-2003), Se Hwan Lee (2001-2003), Chunyan Li (2001-2003), Phalgun Mynemi (2002-2005), Alok Jani (2002-2005), Ashwin Kumar Samarao (2004-2006), Nathaniel Hadlock (2004-2006), Eric MacKnight (2006-2008), Bharat Ram Ramaswamy (2010-2012), Youngkun Sui (2015), Nirjhar Bhattacharya (2015), Kashish Aggarwal (2018)

Advisors

Ph.D. Advisor:  Mark G. Allen, Ph.D., Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Post-Doc Supervisor:  Luby Romankiw, Ph. D, IBM Fellow, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, NY