Prof. Steven L. Neale
The University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Biography:
Steven L. Neale is Professor of Micro Engineering and Head of the Systems, Power and Energy Research Division in the James Watt School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow. He joined the University of Glasgow in 2009 with a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering after spending two years at UC Berkeley studying Optoelectronic Tweezers with Prof Ming C. Wu. Prior to this Prof Neale had studied at the University of St Andrews taking an MSci in Physics 1998-2002 and PhD in Optically Controlled Microfluidics 2002-2006 under the supervision of Prof Thomas Krauss’s and Prof Kishan Dholakia. Prof Neale is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, FInstP.
Prof Neale’s research interests lie in two areas: first, the micro-manipulation of particles in suspension for industrial and medical applications and second the development of micro fabricated biomedical devices for medical diagnostics and therapies. Specifically, he has expertise in the micro fabrication of electrodes as impedance-based biosensors and the manipulation of micro particles with optical, electrical and acoustic forces. Prof Neale’s most significant contributions to the field have been in the area of extending the range of particles that can be manipulated with optical patterned electrical forces in an Optoelectronic Tweezers (OET) device. This work, which has shown the manipulation of particles from around 1nm to almost 1mm in size, demonstrates the versatility of this “touch free” control mechanism which he intends to keep exploring for utilisation in manufacturing.