The merging of micro/nanotechnology with biology, chemistry and medicine holds the promise of revolutionizing the fields of biotechnology and chemotechnology. Within the past fifteen years, the idea of developing miniaturized platforms for chemical and biological detection and fundamental science research has progressed from a research curiosity to a commercial reality. Micro/nanotechnologies have become an important component in environmental testing, homeland security, and cellular investigations. For example, our group has been actively involved in the development of a fully portable anodic stripping voltammetry – capillary electrophoresis device; microfabricated explosive detection systems; nanofabricated gas resonant sensors; and, micro/nanofabrication of fibers for capillary and tissue generation. These projects and others will be presented in this seminar.

    Robert S. Keynton is currently the chair and a full professor of the Department of Bioengineering and a University Scholar at the University of Louisville. He received the B.S. degree in engineering science and mechanics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, in 1987, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biomedical engineering from the University of Akron, Akron, OH, in 1990 and 1995, respectively. In 1995, he joined the Biomedical Engineering program at Louisiana Tech University (LTU) in Ruston, LA, as an Assistant Professor and became an Associate Research faculty member in the Institute for Micromanufacturing at LTU in 1996. In 1999, Dr. Keynton joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Louisville (UofL) as an Assistant Professor, director of the BioMEMS and Cardiovascular Mechanics Laboratory, and Associate Director of the UofL Micro/NanoTechnology Facility and was promoted with tenure to Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 2002. He became the interim Scientific Director and Endowed Chair for the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute in July 2004 and, in 2005, he was named the founding chair of the new Department of Bioengineering. He co-founded two companies, Assenti, LLC and Ultra Trace Detection, LLC, along with colleagues at UofL in 2003 and 2006, respectively. In 2001, Dr. Keynton was recognized by the Houston Society of Engineering in Medicine and Biology as the Outstanding Young Scientist of the Year. Dr. Keynton has over 50 peer-reviewed publications, 70 conferences papers, and 6 patents pending. He is currently involved in multidisciplinary research that includes over $8.8 million of funding from NIH, NSF and DHS. He is an active member of ASME, IEEE-EMBS, and BMES and has organized conferences and sessions for these societies. His research interests include BioMEMS, microfluidics, Lab-on-a-Chip development, nanofabrication, MEMS modeling, ultra- high-precision micromechanical machining, and cardiovascular mechanics.