Innovation in Measurement Science: Sensors | Frontiers in sensing: In vivo sensors

Lanqun Mao

Associate Editor, ACS Sensors; Beijing Normal University

Lanqun Mao is currently a Professor of the College of Chemistry at Beijing Normal University. He has enormous experience in the area of in vivo electrochemistry. His group has been working at the interface of electroanalytical chemistry and neuroscience, developing electrochemical approaches through tuning electron transfer and ion transport to understanding brain chemistry in single vesicles, single cells, brain slices and ultimately a living brain. He has demonstrated a record of successful and productive research projects in the related area, and his expertise and experience have led to more than 330 research papers and more than 40 plenary/invited talks in international conferences. He is currently an Associate Editor at ACS Sensors. His advice to young researchers is to be different and novel.

Jill Venton

Professor, University of Virginia

Dr. B. Jill Venton is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Virginia. She is also affiliated with the Neuroscience Graduate Program and the UVA Brain Institute. She received her BS in Chemistry from University of Delaware, her PhD in Chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill (with Mark Wightman), and did postdoctoral research at University of Michigan (with Bob Kennedy). Dr. Venton started her career at University of Virginia in 2005, and has worked her way up the ranks from Assistant Professor all the way to Full Professor and Department Chair. Her research interests are in developing analytical chemistry tools for neuroscience research and she specializes in developing electrochemical sensors. Applications include understanding brain changes in diseases ranging from Parkinson disease, to addiction, to stroke, and aging. She has published more than 90 scientific papers, has 3 patents, and has won numerous awards. Dr. Venton is also a passionate teacher and has developed new classes with active learning components for the undergraduate analytical chemistry curriculum. At home, she has 2 children who keep her busy.

Markita Landry

Assistant Professor, University of California Berkeley

"Markita Landry is an assistant professor in the department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She received a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and a Certificate in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and completed an NSF postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Her current research centers on the development of synthetic nanoparticle-polymer conjugates for imaging neuromodulation in the brain, and for the delivery of genetic materials into plants. The Landry lab exploits the highly tunable chemical and physical properties of nanomaterials for the creation of bio-mimetic structures, molecular imaging, and plant genome editing. She is also on the scientific advisory board of Terramera and on the scientific advisory board of Chi-Botanic. She is a recent recipient of over 20 early career awards, including awards from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the DARPA Young Investigator program, the Beckman Young Investigator program, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the NSF CAREER award, is a Sloan Research Fellow, an FFAR New Innovator, and is a Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator."

Michael S. Strano

Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Professor Michael S. Strano is currently the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received is B.S from Polytechnic university in Brooklyn, NY and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware both in Chemical Engineering. He was a post doctoral research fellow at Rice University in the departments of Chemistry and Physics under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley. From 2003 to 2007, Michael was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before moving to MIT. His research focuses on biomolecule/nanoparticle interactions and the surface chemistry of low dimensional systems, nano-electronics, nanoparticle separations, and applications of vibrational spectroscopy to nanotechnology. Michael is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including a 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a 2006 Beckman Young Investigator Award, the 2006 Coblentz Award for Molecular Spectroscopy, the Unilever Award from the American Chemical Society in 2007 for excellence in colloidal science, and the 2008 Young Investigator Award from the Materials Research Society and the 2008 Allen P. Colburn Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. From 2014 to 2015 he served as member of the Defense Science Study Group, and is currently an editor for the journals Carbon and Protocols in Chemical Biology. Michael was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2017.