MNTC Client Luncheon - Invited Speaker: Blanca Lapizco-Encinas

Dr. Blanca H. Lapizco-Encinas started in 1998 her research on miniaturization and microfluidics during her PhD studies at University of Cincinnati, where she worked toward the development of a micro-chromatograph. In February 2003 she joined the Microfluidics Department at Sandia National Laboratories as a post-doctoral researcher, where she worked on insulator-based dielectrophoresis (iDEP) for the concentration and separation of microbes from water. From January 2005 to July 2011 she was a professor in Mexico, she worked at Tecnológico de Monterrey and CINVESTAV-Monterrey, where she continued her work in microfluidics and electrokinetics. In August 2011 she joined the Chemical Engineering Department at Tennessee Technological University, as an associate professor. Her current research efforts involve
experimental work and mathematical modeling focused on the development of microscale electrokinetic techniques for the manipulation of bioparticles. Her group has worked with proteins, DNA, bacteria, yeast, microalgae and mammalian cells. Her main research objective is to develop electrokinetic-based microdevices that would answer the needs of many different applications.
The research findings obtained by her group have been presented in numerous international conferences. She is a reviewer for several international Journals. She is the Vice-President of the American Electrophoresis Society and Deputy Editor for the Journal Electrophoresis, where she recently acted as guest editor for two special issues on Dielectrophoresis published in September 2011.