Manu Prakash

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Manu Prakash

Manu Prakash is an Indian-American 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]

Quick Facts Alma mater, Known for ...
Manu Prakash
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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
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Early life and education

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

Foldscope

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

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

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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