Amar Basu is vice-president of engineering research at Bioelectronica, while on entrepreneurial leave from Wayne State University where he is associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering. He received a BSE and MSE in electrical ... engineering in 2001 and 2003, an MS in biomedical engineering in 2005, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 2008, all with honors from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. His dissertation, at the NSF Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems, investigated interfacial-tension based microfluidic actuators. In 2008, Amar joined Wayne State University, where he has built a research program in multiphase microfluidics and microelectronics for high-throughput screening health monitoring. His lab has published in a variety of areas including digital assays, droplet microfluidics, manipulation using interfacial tension gradients, droplet trapping with laser-based thermocapillary tweezers, sensing based on interfacial phenomena, and wearable sensors for health monitoring. He has received >$2M in funding, the NSF BRIGE award, and the WSU college of engineering outstanding faculty award. Amar serves on the program committees of the Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), IEEE Transducers, and IEEE Sensors conferences.

Dr. Datwani joined Labcyte Inc., in 2007 and is responsible for leading internal research programs and managing the advanced developments for the creation of new products and capabilities for the company in the arena of acoustic droplet ejection. Dr. Datwani has over twenty ... years of experience directing, managing, inventing and applying cutting edge research and developments in both industry & academia. Prior to Labcyte Inc., Sammy was a Senior Scientist and the Advanced Technologies Group Manager at Eksigent Technologies, LLC (acquired by Danaher Corp.) where he led the technical development for an integrated high performance liquid chromatography on a chip (cHiPLCTM). From 2000 - 2003, Sammy held the position of R&D Engineer in the Advanced Technology Group at Caliper Life Sciences (acquired by Perkin Elmer) and spearheaded the development of the several LabChipTM devices as well as the Library CardTM which married high throughput drug discovery on a microfluidic chip with a high-density reagent storage array. Sammy graduated with honors from The Johns Hopkins University with a B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He holds a M.S. degree from The Columbia University in Chemical Engineering with a concentration in Polymer Science. Sammy earned his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University where his thesis focused both on theory and experiments to gain a fundamental understanding of the adsorption of surfactants, proteins and small molecules to interfaces. Sammy holds several pending and issued patents and has co-authored more than 20 peer-reviewed publications in journals and books. Since 2011, Dr. Datwani has held an appointment as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomedical, Chemical & Materials Engineering at San Jose State University.

Dr. Kalyan Handique is currently the Vice President, Advanced Technologies at BioRad, a billion-dollar company and a global leader in developing, manufacturing, and marketing a broad range of innovative products for the life sciences and clinical diagnostics markets. Kalyan ... joined BioRad through the acquisition of Celsee, an innovative start-up he co-founded in 2011 in single cell analysis and rare cell diagnostics. Celsee was based in Ann Arbor, Michigan and acquired in April 2020. Prior to Celsee, Kalyan served as the VP of R&D Systems Development for BD Diagnostics from 2009-2011. Kalyan ended up working for BD because of the acquisition of HandyLab in 2009. Kalyan co-founded HandyLab out of his Ph.D. work at University of Michigan in 2000. HandyLab developed integrated microfluidic platforms for "sample-to-real time PCR results" for a dozen of FDA approved infectious diseases for the hospitals and clinical labs, currently known as BD Max. Kalyan received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2000 and received a bachelor's in chemical engineering from IIT Bombay in 1995. Kalyan is active in the entrepreneurial community and serves as an adviser and board member to many startups and technological organizations in the Michigan biotech region.

Martha is a chemist with expertise in diverse areas of analytical chemistry. She had worked as an analyst at a licensed 3rd party analytical laboratory where she focused on developing and validating analytical methods for bioequivalence studies. Later, she had served as a quality ... control expert in the analytical domain and as a monitor in clinical trials. Her interest in the clinical industry led her to be a part of two of the biggest hospitals in Mexico where she gained expertise in hematology, microbiology, and blood banking. Later, she became a member of the team of forensic chemical experts and started working from day one as a specialist in narcotics and drugs. This enabled her to gain rich experience in GC-MS, FTIR, HPLC-MS/MS, ICP-MS, and other analytical techniques for the separation, detection, and quantification of different molecules such as cannabinoids. She had participated in multiple oral trials defending her legal opinions and worked as an expert consultant. She had worked on the synthesis of small molecules for testing them on multi-drug resistant bacteria and mycobacteria, further developing her analytical skills in column chromatography, thin-layer chromatography, microbiology, and compound elucidation by NMR and HRMS. She carried out a research stay at the University of Barcelona with the organic synthesis team. She had also worked on natural products in France and presented her work at conferences in the USA and France. She received awards and accolades for her exceptional work. She has participated in several conferences as a moderator as well. Martha holds a bachelor's degree in Clinical Chemistry from the Faculty of Medicine UANL and a master's degree in Pharmacy from the Faculty of Chemical Sciences UANL, Mexico.

Dr. Paszko is the Sr. Vice President at Accelerated Technology Laboratories, Inc. a LIMS, laboratory automation and informatics firm. She is an innovative, customer-centric leader with strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate well with both technical and sales ... teams. She received her undergraduate degree in Medical Technology (MT ASCP), with a minor in Microbiology from the State University of New York @ Buffalo. Her graduate studies were conducted at the University of Maryland in Molecular Microbiology with an emphasis in infectious diseases and informatics. Her unique career combines a Ph.D. with 20+ years of experience in working in laboratories and leveraging data management tools, LIMS and automation. These tools enhance data quality, facilitate regulatory compliance, increase productivity, and the ability better manage laboratory data and information. She has co-authored a book on LIMS, and authored over 5 dozen scientific, LIMS and informatics articles in peer reviewed journals. Dr. Paszko has been helping analytical testing laboratories understand regulatory compliance requirements (ISO 17025), leverage LIMS and automation to increase productivity, throughput and profitability. This approach has helped customers to outperform competitors with best in class Laboratory Information Management Systems Technology, Automation, Systems Integration to offer insights into laboratory and business intelligence.

Dr. Watson is Director of Science at Opentrons, a disruptive life science company leveraging its integrated lab platform to supercharge the pace of innovation in research and healthcare. Using Opentrons' accessible, modular lab robots, thousands of institutions are automating ... their R&D operations. Dr. Watson's team at Opentrons works cross-functionally to develop robots, modules and software for lab automation and verifies automation protocols for assays across genomics, protein-based and cell-based applications. She has been instrumental in the success of the OT-2, Opentrons' flagship robot, as well as integrated modules, including the Opentrons' Thermocycler, Heater-Shaker and Magnetic Module. Dr. Watson studied Biology at Spelman College and has a PhD in Molecular Biology from Princeton University. Her PhD work centered on comparative microbial genomics and elucidation of genetic interactions between ALT and mismatch repair pathways.