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Univ. of Illinois / Lemelson-MIT
University of Illinois materials scientist John Rogers is the 2011 winner of the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize.
The man behind a stretchy heart monitor, an electronic eye camera, and a solar energy technology that is potentially price-competitive with coal has bagged a $500,000 prize for his creative, inventive mind.
John Rogers credits a fortunate upbringing by a physicist dad and poet mom, as well as a team of talented colleagues, for making him one of the most successful midcareer scientists in the country and recipient of this year's Lemelson-MIT Prize.
The blend, he says, has allowed him to think imaginatively — and then leverage his creative ideas within the constraints of practical utility. The result is a string of inventions with applications from life-saving heart surgeries to producing clean, green energy at an industrial scale.
The common thread is his focus on materials. "That is core to everything we do — new materials or new geometries for materials that open up new engineering opportunities," the professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois told me today.
Electrified nature
Much of what Rogers does is come up with ways to allow electronics to mimic nature, and use nature as the inspiration for new product designs. The first category is realized in his so-called biointegrated electronics, which are flexible bits of circuitry that mold to body tissue.
John Rogers
This balloon catheter, with collections of sensors and ablation electrodes on its surface, is designed for minimally invasive treatment of certain types of arrhythmias.
Most of the electronic devices available today are built on rigid, flat surfaces of brittle semiconductor wafers — a platform that's not well-suited for integration with the human body.
"The human body doesn't look like a silicon wafer. It is curvilinear. It is soft. It is elastic. It is moist," he said.
His team bridges the gaps between mechanics and form, between conventional electronics and the human body, by redesigning the electronics to look like the body.
This has led to soft, flexible devices that can be integrated into tools used for medical diagnosis. For example, human trials will soon start on a device that integrated electronics with an inflatable balloon that is threaded into a heart, pumped up and then used to measure the electrical properties of cardiac tissue.
Another concept is to mount the electronics onto the surface of the brain in such a way that the circuitry gets inside the folds and crevices to locate specific regions associated with epileptic seizures, for example.
"You can also imagine all kinds of physiological status monitors, monitoring brain waves, or EKG, muscle activity, and so on, and in that realm I think that there are real opportunities in health and fitness," he added.
In fact, Rogers' company, mc10, has partnered with Reebok to produce a line of wearable monitoring equipment, though he wouldn't spare any more details on the specifics.
Electric eye
Nature — specifically, the mammalian eye — is the inspiration for his electric-eye camera. Our eyes, he said, are "spectacularly sophisticated" imaging devices, but are relatively simple compared to the camera equipment used to make professional-quality photographs.
For the camera, he put photoreceptors on a hemispherical surface similar in size and shape to the human eye. The result is a wide-angle view in a compact package that gives the same sharpness and resolution as studio-quality photographs.
Lemelson-MIT Program
An electronic "eyeball camera" consists of a hemispherical photodetector array integrated with a simple imaging lens.
For now, the technology is being used primarily for night-vision cameras, a niche market where his lenses should trim weight and bulk from the devices currently on the market. The future, though, is likely in your pocket: "Imagine a cell phone camera that takes studio-quality pictures," he said. "That's the vision."
Cheap, green electricity
The work on stretchable electronics has also led Rogers in the direction of producing clean, green electricity with a photovoltaic module based on teeny, tiny solar cells that, when wired up together, have the potential to compete with coal on price.
Lemelson-MIT Program
Spherical glass lenses focus sunlight onto a collection of tiny solar cells.
Each cell is the size of grain of sand that is wired with others into an array. On top of each cell is a tiny glass lens that focuses the sunlight on the cell.
"In this way you can build a very lo- cost and highly efficient module that can efficiently convert sunlight into electrical power," said Rogers, who co-founded another company, Semprius, to market the technology.
Tucson Electric Power Company is trying out an array in the Arizona desert. According to Rogers, an independent consultant has concluded that within five years the technology can be scaled up and compete with coal on price.
All this creative work earned Rogers the $500,000 prize today. He will accept it and speak about his accomplishments at EurekaFest at MIT from June 15 to 18.
More stories on the Rogers' work and the prize:
- An eyeball camera for cell phone --with zoom
- Stretchable LEDs could mean better medical implants
- Breakthrough makes LED lights more versatile
- Biotech pioneer wins invention prize
- 7 award-winning innovations
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
Leave a Comment:
Same here Charls. Inventive minds such as Roger's are what has made America competitive in the past. we need to be competitive again.
.....so, lemme get this straight: amazing, genius guy who has a slew of incredible ideas gets a modest $500K (barely buys an upper-middle-class home here in California), when inane, moronic, sleazy, shallow, mediocre, TALENTLESS, self-obsessed reality-TV contestants make upwards of $1 million for appearing in/winning on shows like Survivor, Big Brother, Jersey Shore, Real Housewives, etc.????? The sad, sad takeaway: possessing true intelligence & inventing solutions which improve the world is worth a LOT less than being a crass self-promoter whose shameless behavior is broadcast as "entertainment".
Phillip-2395190,
This prize has NOTHING to do with the government. Please read the second paragraph. Stop trying to force everything you see as bad on a government/elected official you don't like.
Second, the government has nothing to do with what we pay our athletes. Blame that on the owners, media, and public. The public demands that the best players be on their team at all cost and the media and owners fuel this. Sports is all a money game that, again, has NOTHING to do with our government.
I agree 100%, Miraxian!
@Philip, quit blaming everything on our current administration. As a science teacher I can tell you that science education and funding for scientific research in our country has been on the decline for years. If you're looking to blame someone, how about the Bush Administration for their drastic cuts in science funding? Everyone, from NASA and the NSF to NOAA, U.S. Forestry Serivce, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, lost millions in funding during the Bush years, and having worked as a fisheries biologist during his first term I'd seen it first-hand. Quit playing politics and assign blame where it's due!
Unfortunately, you're right, Stateyourbiz. As an example, just think back to when we were in school. The smart kids who were a whiz at math and science and made all A's were teased and ridiculed and called geeks and nerds, and were tormented by the popular kids who were the jocks and cheerleaders who barely made passing grades. That attitude still persists as adults; the people who are rich and pretty and play professional sports are cool, while the ones who are the physicists, chemists, engineers, and college professors are not. When was the last time you saw a reality show on the life of a chemical engineer, or a university physics professor?
You're also assuming that Roger is doing it all for the money, which I'm guessing he is not.
No, we are bemoaning his inability to do this "for the money".
The 500k he received was prize money from MIT, no where in this article has it disclosed his actual yearly salary from the university of Illinois. His "inability" to do it for the money should not be a reason someone goes into any scientific field. Also, I'm going to go out on limb here but I'm assuming with this recognition from this award their will be investors and grants to be had if his technology has the possibility to be revolutionary. Which almost always includes more money, no?
This scientist/inventor and others like him are our only hope of keeping America at the forefront of new technology. Creative applications that continue the trend of U.S. scientific advances while also breaking down cost barriers. The world will beat a path to his door. Well done. Keep 'em coming.
I love post where everybody is on the same side. Keep the tech coming friend. Make America great again!
Technology won't make America great again if the powers that be outsource it, the sad thing is we have the ability to make this world a heaven but greed in high places makes it a hell and always has.
Yea lets here it for the people who invented a car that could paralle park, wow I could paralle park when I was five years old, if you can't do that then a car shouldn't do it for you, use your legs and walk, or a car that wakes you up if you fall asleep, don't drive if your tired. Love those automatic sliding doors in Vans, "I can't or don't know how to shut the sliding door so the Van does it for me". Yes sir we keep coming up with things to enhance our lifes and we owe those people so much. Here is a good idea, lets put our efforts into getting rid of poverty. I would buy that one.
Your right technology is a joke, it has helped the rich get richer and the poorer get alot poorer. Jobs get eliminated, unless you win the lottery or happen to be in the right place at the right time then you are condemned to work which is not a bad thing, that is if you can hold on to your job, but if you work for a living anymore than you will die pennyless or at least you hope your money out live you, the lucky ones can make it to death before the government or the rich get everything they have worked for but that is even getting to be a struggle.
Hi William, How about inventors/innovators who would use a major part of their royalties into buying their own products, flying to different parts of the world where the needs are great, & giving these (your own invented products) as gifts; free gifts I should say! When they need to be replaced or replenished, go back & give more. That's what I would do if I could have my products manufactured & patented. My bottom line is how can I design something that would help millions of people all over the world? So, that's what I've done. Just need the $$ to get things rolling.
William,
Yes, new tech can phase out old tech and old jobs, but it creates new ones in the process.
New technology creates new industry which creates new jobs. If what you said was true, there would be no new jobs due to the creation of computers. As it stands, computer type jobs are one of the fastest growing industries for jobs.
I feel proundest of his success and good for American people too. So on what you want to do and good for yourself and others.
Still missing the bigger picture . Solar arrays make no difference . You CAN NOT replace fossil fuels ,which is the only thing that will fix this economy . Solar energy isnt gonna make the tires ,resins ,plastics or create the metals that make cars or everything else in your life . Energy just isnt as big of an issue as the manufacturing base we get from fossil fuels . And solar panels are anything but GREEN . The chemicals used to make them are incredibly toxic and dont biodegrade .
I dont know the answer ,but I know I wont be fooled and put off by insignificant progress like this anymore !
Dear Frag, Wow; thanks for the info! Solar energy would also put God only knows how many people out of work! Sometimes I think that this Green "stuff" is nothing but a pipe dream!
Um, not to contrary but, the discovery this young man made is one that helps solar cells not be such a big impact on the environment.
Also, metal is not a fossil fuel. And plastics can be made from creatin and other products. Tires are made from synthetic rubbers nowadays. Resins are made from synthetic chemicals as well.
Yes, there is a place for oil by-products, but gasoline isn't one of them.
FRAG and LMBT4,
Your staggering ignorance on solar power is showing. And on fossil fuels too.
Not going to get into it all, but plastics and rubber can be made from soy. Ford is doing this in the new Fiesta as is Yokohama Tires.
Plastics came about because we had all this left over material from making our fuel and we needed something to do with it. Scientists were told to find a way to use this nasty waste, and they came up with plastic. Now, as we create more technologies to replace our fossil fuels, we will also create new wastes. We will then also need to find a way to "use" those wastes.
You seem to be forgetting that it took us many years and billions of dollars to build the current fossil fuel system. So of course, it will take years and money to again create a new system. The current system is unsustainable, that is why we need to create a new one. So yeah, it might be more costly now to create a new system compared to our current fossil fuels, but that is the price to pay. And only solar or only hydrogen or only anything does not need to be the answer. The answer is best to be an all inclusive with many different sources of energy. You are fooled into thinking that unless it is cheaper than fossil fuels now, it is not worth it. That thinking will keep us on the same system which will ultamately fail.
And they are called fossil fuels because they take seriously old, fossilized, organic matter to make them. For example:
98 tons of prehistoric, buried plant material – that's 196,000 pounds – is required to produce each gallon of gasoline we burn in our cars, SUVs, trucks and other vehicles, according to a study conducted at the University of Utah. Study: Burning Buried Sunshine: Human Consumption of Ancient Solar Energy.
so the already fortunate WIN money ,That's great!!!!
This is really amazing! I am also an inventor or innovator really, and I get my ideas from technology that is already manufactured. Then, I think to myself, how else could this technology be used to help people? Currently, I have one invention, 3 innovations for products that would help people all over the world; plus, I have designed a new type of therapy for people suffering from stress, anxiety, depression, anger, & all other mental and/or emotional problems; including those with addictions. I am going to begin to write down all the details of my new method of therapy that does include a few aspects of other therapies. However, the basic, how do I say it? idea of this therapy, what it is used for, and how, is entirely new. With the above mentioned invention, and the 3 innovations there is a problem. I do not have any money to have the ideas researched, manufactured, & patented. I would say that each of these invention/innovations would take about $3,000 each to go through the processes & have them patented. Then, from these invention/innovations, I've come up with more complex uses for the same type of product in a totally different field, or discipline. I was all set with Davison to have one of my inventions go through the processes, and I made a recording of all my ideas of what the product would look like, how it could be modified, how it could in the near future be used to help people medically in a major way, etc. However, I did not have, nor could I get a hold of the $3,000 to have it made up. What can I do, and to whom should I talk to? I am not a scientist; but, I love Science! I have a BA in English Lit., and I've almost finished an MPA (I had a 3.86 average). I couldn't finish in the time allotted to complete the online degree. Right now, I'm learning how to design, and manufacture my own jewelry line. I've learned the basics of metalwork, stone-setting, & repairs. With that course I'm almost finished. Now, I've just started a correspondence course from the Sheffield School of Design on Jewelry Design & Beading. There has never been an end to my interests; I'm also a Writer & Microblogger. I'm an information addict. But, I also take the time as to what I can do with the info I learn to help other people. So, underneath all this inventiveness lies a great will and drive to help other people to make their lives easier, more functional, and comfortable; maybe even live longer! Does anyone know to whom I could speak to about these inventions? People right now, in this moment, are suffering in different ways because these products have not been developed, modified, and most of all, manufactured! I would love to hear other's thoughts on my subject. I am open to all suggestions! By the way, Congratulations to this brilliant young man for winning the prize! What I find interesting is how he gets his ideas. I get ideas in a different way. Even so, I hope that I can be fortunate enough to see my products patented, manufactured, & helping people live better lives all around the world.
My original post was just making an out-loud note on a couple things:
1. It's sad that America (can't speak for any other country but my own) has become so obsessed and fixated on celebrifying those who have NO talent other than self-promotion, and worshipping those who have some level of talent (i.e., professional athletes and entertainers). I mean, Snooki, Paris, The Situation, The Real Housewives - REALLY???? Even 100 short years ago, these people's behavior would have been embarrassing at the least.....the kind of people you would tell your kids to NOT emulate....Now they're "cooool" and let's push the envelope. DON'T PARTICIPATE IN THE DUMBING DOWN & SLEAZ-I-FYING of AMERICA, PEOPLE!!!!!!
2. Even sadder that the popular culture doesn't celebrate those who have turned their intellectual gifts into something that can benefit others. Last guy I can remember who got that kind of recognition was Albert Einstein, and I'm sure there have been plenty of innovators in the 60+ years since he left us, we just don't hear about them.
Like I said, if money is the barometer of worth here (and not saying Mr. Rogers invented anything for the sake of what he would get paid, just saying that is the measuring stick), then why not have a reality show called "American Inventor" and have contestants who create ideas or projects to improve something? Then viewers could vote for the winner.....and I would gladly celebrate someone taking home a tidy million $ if they actually CONTRIBUTED something to our world in the process!
Hey! Good idea! That's it - I'm calling Nigel Lythgoe, I've got something he should listen to.....
Why are people comparing his income to popular culture celebrities who make millions? He just made 500k on a prize, and to me that is rich. He makes surely between 60-100k for being a professor. He has a private company that has a contract with Reebok, to make sports apparel with bio monitors.
John Rogers, is a rich man now. And his parents were highly educated. I think that children should look up to this man and not Lebron James, politicians, actors.