Lab on a Chip, the number 1 journal for micro and nanofluidics, awarded some of the most prestigious awards in the miniaturisation sector at the recent µTAS 2010 Conference in Jeju, Korea . 

Editor of the journal Harp Minhas was delighted to announce the winners of the 'Pioneers of Miniaturisation Prize' (supported by Corning), the 'Widmer Poster Prize' and the 'Art in Science Award' (co-sponsored by NIST). 

Professor Stephen Quake (Stanford, California, USA) received the 'Pioneers of Miniaturisation Prize' for his creativity, independent qualities and scientific leadership in microfluidic-based quantitative biology and biomedical instrumentation. 

Professor Stephen Quake

• He invented Microfluidic Large Scale Integration, demonstrating the first devices with thousands of ingegrated mechanical valves for biological automation.
• Demonstrated the first multilayered active on-off valves, switching valves, and pumping system using PDMS (Science, 2000)
• Seminal work on Droplet generation (PRL, 2001)
• Demonstrated the 1st high-density microfluidic chips containing logic circuits and networks with thousands of microfluidic valves and hundreds of individually addressable microfluidic reaction chambers (Sience, 2002)
• Founder of Fluidigm and Helicos Biosciences     

For more details about the 'Pioneers of Miniaturisation Prize' and how to nominate a fellow scientist for next year's award, please click on the link at the bottom of this page. 

This year's 'Widmer Young Researcher Poster Award' went to Japan. Sadao Ota (Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo and LIMMS/CNRS-IIS (UMI2820), Japan) was honored for his research on the generation of monodisperse cell-sized and unilamellar vesicles from a microfluidic T-junction. 

Winning Image 'Cell Block 9'

Nicolas Gunn (University of California, Irvine, CA, USA) received the 'Art in Science Award' for the submission of the best scientific image titled 'Cell Block 9'. The picture is of a colorized SEM micrograph showing fibroblast cells cultured on microscale pedestals. This 'micropallet array'sequesters cells and prevents their migration while allowing for the exchange of soluble factors through the communal growth media covering the array. The full array comprised of over 40,000 pedestals that can be individually released with a focused laser pulse.

Congratulation to all winners!