| Manu Prakash | |
| Field: | Bioengineering |
| Work Institutions: | Stanford University |
| Alma Mater: | MIT, IIT Kanpur |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Neil Gershenfeld |
| Known For: | Foldscope, Paperfuge |
| Prizes: | MacArthur Fellows Program (2016), TED Senior Fellow (2011) |
Manu Prakash is an Indian scientist who is a professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. Manu was born in Meerut, India. He is best known for his contributions to the Foldscope[1] and Paperfuge.[2] Prakash received the MacArthur Fellowship in September 2016. He and his team at Stanford University have developed a synchronous computer that operates using the physics of moving water droplets.[3] His work focuses on frugal innovation that makes medicine, computing and microscopy accessible to more people across the world.[4] [5] [6]
Manu Prakash was born in Meerut, India. He earned a BTech in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and an M.S. and PhD in Applied Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[7]
A Foldscope is an optical microscope that can be assembled from simple components, including a sheet of paper and a lens. It was developed by Jim Cybulski and Manu Prakash and designed to cost less than US$1 to build. It is part of the "frugal science" movement, which aims to make cheap and easy tools available for scientific use in the developing world.[8]
Paperfuge is a hand-powered ultralow-cost paper centrifuge designed by Manu Prakash and members of the Prakash Lab. Inspired by the whirlygig toy configuration, Dr. Manu designed a centrifuge using the toy's design and Supercoiling-mediated ultrafast spinning dynamics. The Paperfuge can be used to separate Plasma and RBC for rapid Malaria diagnosis in remote areas.[9] [10]
TED Fellow 2009, TED Fellow 2010, TED Senior Fellow 2011[11]
Gates Foundation Global Health “Explorations” Grant 2012[12]
NIH Director's New Innovator Award 2015[13]
MacArthur Fellow 2016[14]
Unilever Colworth Prize 2020[15]