Event

Chemistry for Life – Transient Electronics and a Tribute to Professor Dong Qin

Living organisms are dynamic chemical systems, with capabilities for adapting, evolving and reacting to changes in their environment.  By contrast, modern integrated circuit technologies are physically and chemically static, due to strategic choices in constituent materials and engineering designs.  Recent research establishes the foundations for classes of ‘transient’ electronic systems, uniquely characterized by their ability to morph, transform and resorb in a responsive manner within a biological setting.  This talk describes essential concepts in the materials chemistry for such devices, in a variety of formats and with a range of functions.  Wireless temporary pacemakers configured to minimize risks after cardiac surgeries represent system level examples that address specific unmet clinical needs.  The first and last parts of my presentation will include tributes to Professor Dong Qin, an accomplished educator, a talented researcher, a wonderful collaborator and a dear friend.

Professor John A. Rogers obtained BA and BS degrees in chemistry and in physics from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1989.  From MIT, he received SM degrees in physics and in chemistry in 1992 and a PhD degree in physical chemistry in 1995.  From 1995 to 1997, Rogers was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard University Society of Fellows.  He joined Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff in 1997 and then served as Director of the Condensed Matter Physics Research Department from the end of 2000 to 2002.  He then spent thirteen years on the faculty at the University of Illinois, most recently as the Swanlund Chair Professor and Director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory.  In the Fall of 2016, he moved to Northwestern University where he is Director of the Querrey-Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics.  He has co-authored nearly 1000 papers and he is co-inventor on more than 100 patents, more than 70 or which are licensed to large companies or to startups that have emerged from his labs.  His research has been recognized by many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship (2009), the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2011), the Smithsonian Award for American Ingenuity in the Physical Sciences (2013), the MRS Mid-Career Award (2013) and Medal (2018), the Benjamin Franklin Medal (2019), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2021), the James Prize for Science and Technology Integration from the NAS (2022) and the IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award (2024).  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.