Keynotes and Anniversary Talks

Imagine a life without the words www or http? They emerged one fine day from a scientific laboratory! The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN Geneva, Switzerland is home to thousands of high energy physicists. By exploiting large sophisticated radiation sensors, designed and constructed over decades we are cumulatively, seeking answers to questions about the origin, evolution and composition of our universe. At this forefront of scientific pursuit, working hand in hand with industries, spin off technologies have completely changed our lives. With the world wide web, medical imaging, diagnostic and treatment techniques, high-performance computing, space exploration, art restoration to name a few - the audacious, innovative cutting edge technologies of particle physics have entered and transformed mainstream society. In this talk I will trace the adventure of knowledge and technology transfer at CERN and how we can collectively fight pandemics, unknown and some known catastrophes and silent challenges like cancer.

My work with nonlinearity and microelectromechanical systems began nearly 30 years ago when I began graduate school at Cornell.  In this talk, I will look back at the progression of the field over the past 30 years, and use examples from my own work and others, to demonstrate how nonlinearity has played a large role in the sensor revolution.  I will touch on not only key inventions and demonstrations, but also discuss how modeling and testing have evolved to enable faster and more effective progress.  The increases in sensitivity and bandwidth, along with more sophisticated control algorithms have enabled MEMS to be a key element in smart homes, automobiles and healthcare.

It has been over thirty years since my first efforts in 1991 that launched the field of NEMS. Since that time, NEMS has become a truly global endeavor that has engendered amazing milestones from many laboratories. I will survey this landscape, and then turn to some of the exciting possibilities in classical and quantum sensing with NEMS being pursued today.