David Erickson

David Erickson

S.C. Thomas Sze Director of the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Upson Hall, Room 139
Sibley College Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Biography

David Erickson is the SC Thomas Sze Director and Sibley College Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University.  He is also a joint Professor within the Division of Nutritional Sciences and was previously the Associate Dean of Engineering for Research and Graduate Programs.  Prof. Erickson is the director of the NIH POCTRN Center “PORTENT – Center for Point of Care Technologies for Nutrition, Infection, and Cancer in Global Health."  His research focuses on: global health technology, medical diagnostics, microfluidics, photonics, and nanotechnology.  Prior to joining the faculty, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto. Research in the Erickson lab is or has been primarily funded through grants from the NIH, NSF, ARPA-E, ONR, DoD, DOE, DARPA, USAID, USDA, Nutrition International, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and other foundations.

Prof. Erickson has helped to found numerous start-up companies commercializing: high-throughput pharmaceutical instrumentation, biomedical diagnostics, and energy technologies including Halo Labs, VitaScan and Dimensional Energy.

Prof. Erickson has received the DARPA-MTO Young Faculty Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Department of Energy Early Career Award, among others.  In 2011 he was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers (PECASE) by President Obama.  Erickson has been named a fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Research Interests

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2022)
  • Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering (2021) 
  • Carbon X-Prize Finalist for Dimensional Energy (2019) 
  • Defense Sciences Study Group (2016-2017)
  • Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME (2014)
  • Prism Award Finalist, for Optofluidics’s Molecular NanoTweezer, SPIE (2014)
  • Pittcon Silver New Product Award, for Optofluidics’s Molecular NanoTweezer (2013)
  • Corporate Innovator Award, for Optofluidic’s Inc., IEEE (2013)
  • Fellow of the Optical Society of America, OSA (2012)
  • Philadelphia Life Sciences Start-up of the Year, Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (2012)
  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, PECASE (2011)
  • Department of Energy Early Career Award (2010)
  • National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2009)
  • 4th U.S. – Japan NSF Young Researchers Exchange Program (2007)
  • DARPA-MTO Young Faculty Award (2007)
  • Robert ’55 and Vanne ’57 Cowie Excellence in Teaching Award (2007)

Education

  • Post-Doc, Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (2005)
  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (2004)
  • M.A.Sc., Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (2001)
  • B.Sc. – Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB (1999)

Websites

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