Monday,
October 4, 2004 EPA Funded Researcher on MIT Technology Review's List of 100 Remarkable Innovators Under 35 Who are Transforming Technology — and the World.
Jamie Link was selected as one of the top 100 most remarkable innovators for 2004, and at the age of 26 was the youngest recognized scientist on the list. Link, a graduate student under Michael Sailor collaborated with Sailor in the development of their "smart dust" nanosensors. Jamie Link was in the process of making a thin multi-layer film of porous silicon on a crystalline substrate when the silicon chip accidentally broke. She then observed that each piece—her smart dust—retained the properties of the original. The particles have been found to have a wide range of uses in medical diagnostics and research, environmental testing, drug delivery and countless other uses. For instance, Link can make her particles a particular color, then program them to detect a particular substance, such as a toxin. As the microscopic sensors find the toxin, they join together as a red spot to mark the toxic pollutant. The invention could have wide commercial use in research and medical laboratories—in performing rapid biochemical assays, screening chemicals for potential new drugs and testing air and water for toxic chemicals.
Last October, Link won the $50,000 grand prize in the Collegiate Inventors Competition, a program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her work in the development of dust-sized chips of silicon that allow scientists rapidly and remotely to detect a variety of biological and chemical agents, including substances that a terrorist might dissolve in drinking water or spray into the atmosphere.
Monday,
October 4, 2004