Manu_Prakash

Manu Prakash

Manu Prakash

Biophysicist

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 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][4][5]

Quick Facts Alma mater, Known for ...

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.[6]

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.[7]

Paperfuge

Paperfuge is a Hand-powered ultralow-cost paper centrifuge designed by Manu Prakash and Members at Prakash Lab. Inspired from 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.[8][9][10]

Awards

TED Fellow 2009, TED Fellow 2010, TED Senior Fellow 2011[11]

Gates Foundation Global Health “Explorations” Grant 2012[12]

NIH Director's New Innovator Award 2015[13]

MacArthur Fellow 2016[14]

Unilever Colworth Prize 2020[15]

References

  1. [1]
    "A Microscope to Save the World". The New Yorker. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  2. [2]
    "The Paperfuge: A 20-Cent Device That Could Transform Health Care". Wired. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  3. [3]
    MacArthur Foundation. "Manu Prakash". Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  4. [4]
    John Markoff, "Science Tools anyone can afford", New York Times April 21, 2014 Accessed 21 July 2019.
  5. [5]
    "TED Fellows". Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  6. [6]
    Stanford University. "Manu Prakash". Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  7. [7]
    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.
  8. [8]
    Lifesaving scientific tools made of paper | Manu Prakash, retrieved 7 February 2020
  9. [9]
    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.
  10. [10]
    "A low-cost, hand-powered paper centrifuge". National Institutes of Health (NIH). 30 January 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  11. [11]
    "Manu Prakash's TED Profile". www.ted.com. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  12. [12]
    "Bioengineer Prakash wins Gates Foundation global health "Explorations" grant | Bioengineering". bioengineering.stanford.edu. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  13. [13]
    "NIH Director's New Innovator Award Program - 2015 Award Recipients | NIH Common Fund". commonfund.nih.gov. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  14. [14]
    "Manu Prakash - MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  15. [15]
    Society, Microbiology. "News". microbiologysociety.org. Retrieved 10 February 2020.


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