The Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announces that Mr. Ying-Chih Wang has won the Helen Carr Peake Research Prize for 2005.
Mr. Wang is a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who is doing research in RLE under the supervision of Professor Jongyoon Han. Mr. Wang’s Master’s thesis, completed in 2004, demonstrated new techniques for on-chip multi-dimensional biomolecule separation, and led to a publication in the journal Analytical Chemistry. The work for which he is receiving the prize is a breakthough achievement in biomolecule concentration. By taking advantage of unique properties of a nanofluidic channel, Mr. Wang has shown that it is possible to collect and concentrate proteins and peptides (or any other biomolecule, such as DNA) by factors as large as 10^6, whereas existing techniques have yielded concentration factors only up to ~10^3. Thus, Mr. Wang’s achievements may lead to enormous advances in biomolecule separation. He gave an invited conference presentation on this work at MicroScale Bioseparations 2005, and has submitted a paper on this work to the journal Analytical Chemistry
The Helen Carr Peake Research Prize was established through a donation of Dr. Sheldon Pang, an RLE/EPL alumnus. It consists of an annual award of $2000 to an MIT student for bioengineering research performed in either RLE or EPL. This year is the third time the prize is being awarded. The prize presentation to Mr. Wang will occur later this spring at an award luncheon.
Helen Carr Peake, the wife of Professor William T. Peake, passed away in 2002. Dr. Pang’s gift honors her memory and commemorates the profound influence of the Peakes on his education and professional development. The selection of Mr. Wang was done by a committee consisting of Professor Dennis M. Freeman (MIT/RLE), Professor Jeffrey H. Shapiro (MIT, Director RLE), Professor M. Charles Liberman (Harvard, Director EPL), and Professor William T. Peake (MIT/RLE/EPL).
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