Syracuse Chapter of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Presents:

The EMBS HealthTech Symposium Fall 2009


Thursday November 5 2009, presentation starting at 3:30 PM

At the Welch Allyn Lodge

4341 State Street Rd, Skaneateles Falls, NY 13153-0220


Cost: $20 for professionals, $10 for IEEE Members, Free for students and EMBS Members. Payment received at the door







For up to the date information, see the EMBS chapter website

(https://www.ewh.ieee.org/r1/syracuse/EMBSWeb/SyracuseEMBS.htm)

Sponsored by Binghamton and Syracuse Sections of the IEEE, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society and Blue Highways



RSVP: e-mail to EMBS Webmaster ( syrembswebmaster@ieee.org)


Come join us for an evening opportunity to meet some of your regional colleagues in the Medical Engineering field.






Application of Flexible Electronics in Biology and Medicine
Jim Turner, Center for Advanced Microelctronics Manufacturing (CAMM) at Binghamton University

Over the past half century developments directly traceable to electronics have revolutionized our lives, and the impact on the fields of biology and medicine have been extraordinary. However, the biomedical application of electronics is still basically “outside the biology looking in” or in peripheral roles. The scientific and engineering communities are beginning to fully exploit the small-scale fabrication methods developed by the electronics industry to integrate electronics directly with biological systems on their fundamental length-scales. In part, this delayed impact is due to the exquisite combination of complexity and adaptability characteristic of all biological systems, which have evolved to recognize, destroy, isolate or reject objects that are not self. Traditional silicon based electronics is hard, rigid, and dense compared to biological systems, and has surfaces that are structurally and chemically different than any biological surface. It is this physical and chemical mismatch that produces biomolecular alterations and/or reactive responses that alter the biology and limit the utility of electronics in biological systems. Flexible electronics on flexible organic substrates provide a better mechanical and chemical match to all biological systems ranging from biomolecules to humans. The underlying geometric conformability of flexible and even stretchable devices is also important as most biological surfaces have complex shapes, and are soft and pliable. Since it is these responses that hamper progress in applying electronics directly to biological problems, it is expected that flexible electronics will have a significant future impact on biomedicine in applications ranging from the molecular to human scale.


Biography: Jim Turner earned his BS in Engineering Science and his PhD in Biophysics at the University of Buffalo. He did postdoctoral work at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and directed the electron microscopy facility for the Departments of Pathology and Gastroenterology at the Genesee Hospital in Rochester New York. He was a Research Scientist and Principle Investigator at the New York State Dept. of Health’s Wadsworth Center where he was one of the key personnel in the NIH National Center for Research Resources’ National Center for Microscopy and Image Reconstruction. He established the three-dimensional light microscopy facility at Wadsworth and the Center’s Program in NanoBioTechnology. He was a founding member of the NSF Science and Technology Center in NanobioTechnology headed by Cornell University, and is a member of the National Working Group for Flexible Electronics. He has served on numerous NIH and NSF committees, and as Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions in Nanotechnology. He has published 120 peer reviewed scientific articles, 23 book chapters, and 270 abstracts. He joined the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM) at Binghamton University in June of 2008.


Addtional reference material: Center for Advance Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM)



Smart Polymers: From Shape Memory to Self-Healing
Patrick Mather, Director - Syracuse Biomaterials Institute Syracuse University

The recent several years have witnessed significant advances in the field of shape memory polymers (SMP’s) with elucidation of new compositions for property tuning, new mechanisms for shape fixing and recovery, and the initiation of phenomenological modeling. In this talk, Dr. Mather will reveal design paradigms and research findings from his lab on new polymeric compositions and architectures that enable shape memory and self-healing phenomena. Emphasis will be placed on exciting progress in the areas of composites, novel recovery triggering, and applications to medical and mechanical device fields.


Biography: Patrick T. Mather earned B.S. (’89) and M.S. (‘90) degrees from Penn State in Engineering Science and Mechanics, following which he went on to receive his Ph.D. in Materials at U.C. Santa Barbara in 1994. He then worked for the Air Force Research Lab until 1999, focusing on polymeric nanocomposites. Mather’s academic career began at University of Connecticut, Chemical Engineering, in 1999. There, he focused on polymeric materials science, studying liquid crystalline polymers, hybrid inorganic-organic polymers, and fuel cell membranes. Having received tenure, Mather then moved to Case Western Reserve University where he established a research program on functional biomaterials. In the Fall of 2007, Dr. Mather was recruited to Syracuse University, as the Milton and Ann Stevenson Professor of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering. He is the founding director of the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute. Mather’s research interests center around smart materials, including shape memory polymers, polymeric nanocomposites, and biodegradable polymers.


Addtional reference material: Syracuse University BioMaterials Institute