Manu Prakash Explained

Manu Prakash is an Indian scientist who is a professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. Manu was born in Meerut, India. He is best known for his contributions to the Foldscope^[1] and Paperfuge.^[2] Prakash received the MacArthur Fellowship in September 2016. He and his team at Stanford University have developed a synchronous computer that operates using the physics of moving water droplets.^[3] His work focuses on frugal innovation that makes medicine, computing and microscopy accessible to more people across the world.^{[4] [5] [6]}

Early life and education

Manu Prakash was born in Meerut, India. He earned a BTech in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and an M.S. and PhD in Applied Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[7]

Notable work

Foldscope

A Foldscope is an optical microscope that can be assembled from simple components, including a sheet of paper and a lens. It was developed by Jim Cybulski and Manu Prakash and designed to cost less than US$1 to build. It is part of the "frugal science" movement, which aims to make cheap and easy tools available for scientific use in the developing world.^[8]

Paperfuge

Paperfuge is a hand-powered ultralow-cost paper centrifuge designed by Manu Prakash and members of the Prakash Lab. Inspired by the whirlygig toy configuration, Dr. Manu designed a centrifuge using the toy's design and Supercoiling-mediated ultrafast spinning dynamics. The Paperfuge can be used to separate Plasma and RBC for rapid Malaria diagnosis in remote areas.^{[9] [10]}

Awards

TED Fellow 2009, TED Fellow 2010, TED Senior Fellow 2011^[11]

Gates Foundation Global Health “Explorations” Grant 2012^[12]

NIH Director's New Innovator Award 2015^[13]

MacArthur Fellow 2016^[14]

Unilever Colworth Prize 2020^[15]

External links

• https://web.stanford.edu/group/prakash-lab/
• https://www.foldscope.com/

Notes and References

1. A Microscope to Save the World. The New Yorker. 2016-09-26.
2. The Paperfuge: A 20-Cent Device That Could Transform Health Care. Wired. 2017-01-10.
3. https://news.stanford.edu/2015/06/08/computer-water-drops-060815/
4. Web site: Manu Prakash. MacArthur Foundation . 2016-09-26. MacArthur Foundation .
5. John Markoff, "Science Tools anyone can afford", New York Times April 21, 2014 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/science/science-tools-anyone-can-afford.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article Accessed 21 July 2019.
6. Web site: TED Fellows. 2020-02-05.
7. Web site: Manu Prakash. Stanford University. 2018-04-04.
8. Cybulski. James S.. Clements. James. Prakash. Manu. 2014-06-18. Foldscope: Origami-Based Paper Microscope. PLOS ONE. 9. 6. e98781. 10.1371/journal.pone.0098781. 1932-6203. 4062392. 24940755. 1403.1211. 2014PLoSO...998781C. free.
9. Bhamla. M. Saad. Benson. Brandon. Chai. Chew. Katsikis. Georgios. Johri. Aanchal. Prakash. Manu. 2017-01-10. Hand-powered ultralow-cost paper centrifuge. Nature Biomedical Engineering. en. 1. 1. 1–7. 10.1038/s41551-016-0009. 2157-846X.
10. Web site: A low-cost, hand-powered paper centrifuge. 30 January 2017. National Institutes of Health (NIH). EN. 2020-02-07.
11. Web site: Manu Prakash's TED Profile. www.ted.com. en. 2020-02-10.
12. Web site: Bioengineer Prakash wins Gates Foundation global health "Explorations" grant Bioengineering. bioengineering.stanford.edu. 2020-02-10.
13. Web site: NIH Director's New Innovator Award Program - 2015 Award Recipients NIH Common Fund. commonfund.nih.gov. 18 September 2018 . 2020-02-10.
14. Web site: Manu Prakash - MacArthur Foundation. www.macfound.org. 2020-02-10.
15. Web site: News. Society. Microbiology. microbiologysociety.org. 2020-02-10.