Dr. Chad A. Mirkin is the Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology, the George B. Rathmann Prof. of Chemistry, Prof. of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Prof. of Biomedical Engineering, Prof. of Materials Science & Engineering, and Prof. of Medicine. He is a chemist and a world renowned nanoscience expert, who is known for his development of nanoparticle-based biodetection schemes, the invention of Dip-Pen Nanolithography, and contributions to supramolecular chemistry. He is the author of over 636 manuscripts and over 930 patents worldwide (264 issued), and the founder of four companies, Nanosphere, NanoInk, AuraSense, and Exicure, which are commercializing nanotechnology applications in the life science and semiconductor industries.

Dr. Mirkin has been recognized for his accomplishments with over 100 national and international awards. These include the Dan David Prize, American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Convergence Research, Linus Pauling Medal, a Honorary Membership in the Materials Research Society of India, the Walston Chubb Award for Innovation, an Honorary Degree from Nanyang Technological Univ. Singapore, recognition as the Lee Kuan Yew Distinguished Visitor to Singapore, an Honorary Professorship from Hunan Univ. China, the ACS Award for Creative Invention, the Herman S. Bloch Award for Scientific Excellence in Industry, an Einstein Professorship of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Edward Mack Jr. Memorial Award, the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, the Havinga Medal, the Gustavus John Esselen Award, the Biomedical Eng. Society’s Distinguished Achievement Award, a DoD NSSEFF Award, the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award, the ACS Inorganic Nanoscience Award, the iCON Innovator of the Year Award, a NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the Collegiate Inventors Award, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Dickinson College, the Pennsylvania State Univ. Outstanding Science Alumni Award, the ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry, a Dickinson College Metzger-Conway Fellowship, the 2003 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences, the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, the Leo Hendrick Baekeland Award, Crain’s Chicago Business “40 under 40 Award,” the Discover 2000 Award for Technological Innovation, I-Street Magazine’s Top 5 List for Leading Academics in Technology, the Materials Research Society Young Investigator Award, the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, the PLU Fresenius Award, the Harvard University E. Bright Wilson Prize, the BF Goodrich Collegiate Inventors Award, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award, the DuPont Young Professor Award, the NSF Young Investigator Award, the Naval Young Investigator Award, the Beckman Young Investigator Award, and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award.

He is a Member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST, Obama Administration), and the only chemist (one of only 15 scientists, engineers, and medical doctors) to be elected to all three US National Academies (the Inst. of Medicine, the Natl. Academy of Sci., and the Natl. Academy of Engin.). He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Materials Research Society. Dr. Mirkin has served on the Editorial Advisory Boards of over twenty scholarly journals, including Biosensors & Bioelectronics, JACS, Acc. Chem. Res., Angew. Chem., Adv. Mater., Biomacromolecules, Macromolecular Bioscience, SENSORS, Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Chem. Eur. J., Chemistry & Biology, Nanotechnology Law & Business, The Scientist, J. Mater. Chem., J. Cluster Sci., and Plasmonics, and at present, he is an Associate Editor of JACS. He is the founding editor of the journal Small, one of the premier international nanotechnology journals, and he has co-edited three bestselling books.

Dr. Mirkin holds a B.S. degree from Dickinson College (1986, elected into Phi Beta Kappa) and a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the Penn. State Univ. (1989). He was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the MIT prior to becoming a professor at Northwestern Univ. in 1991.