Implementing Smell and Taste with Nano-sensors

January 24, 2012 Noon-1PM
Texas Instruments Auditorium E-1
2900 Semiconductor Drive. Santa Clara, CA

TITLE: Implementing Smell and Taste with Nano-sensors

SPEAKER: Zhiyong Li / HP Labs

ABSTRACT:

The well-being of people and a safe, secure and sustainable world around them demand ultra-sensitive “smell and taste” equivalent sensory to connect the physical world and people through innovative technologies. Inexpensive and real-time detection, identification and even quantification of the trace amount of unusual molecules, in the water you drink, in the food you eat, in the air you breathe, or even disease indicator in your body, will be an indispensible part of the future world. I will describe a novel nanosensor platform that can lead to molecular sensing with high performance, and ease of use, in a palm-size system, at a low cost. The technology is based on rationally designed nanoplasmonic structures to reveal the unique fingerprint of a molecule, also widely known as Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). I will show the demonstration of such technology for food contaminant detection, and illustrate the potential for applications ranging from food safety, water and environmental monitoring, anti-counterfeiting, drug discovery and quality assurance, homeland security, healthcare needs and other emerging markets.

SPEAKER BIO:

Dr. Zhiyong Li is the Principle Investigator of SERS project jointly funded by DARPA and HP. Dr. Li leads a team of world-class researchers to develop nanosensors that will define the physical limit of the sensitivity and enable the future implementation of smell and taste sensory for environmental, health, food, homeland security, and safety monitoring applications. His team is part of the big bet research at HP labs with the vision to deploy billions or even trillions of inexpensive, ultrasensitive sensor nodes around the earth, also known as Central Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE). Dr. Li joined HP since 2001 and pioneered the nanosensor research at HP Labs. Dr. Li graduated with a PhD degree in Chemistry from University of Notre Dame, 2001, a MS degree in Inorganic Materials from Chinese Academy of Science, 1996, and a BS degree in Chemistry from University of Science and Technology of China, 1993. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has more than 40 US patents granted.

PRESENTATION: 2012-Jan-Zhiyong_Li-IEEE_talk_012412-ForPosting.PDF