Ellis Meng is the Shelly and Ofer Nemirovsky Chair of Convergent Biosciences and Professor of

Biomedical Engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). BME also integrates the logica ...

and Electrical and

Computer Engineering Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engi ...

in the

Viterbi School of Engineering The USC Viterbi School of Engineering (formerly the USC School of Engineering) is the engineering school of the University of Southern California. It was renamed following a $52 million donation by Andrew J. Viterbi, co-founder of Qualcomm. ...

at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, where she also serves as the Vice Dean of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Meng is highly decorated in the development of novel

micro- ''Micro'' (Greek letter μ, Mu (letter), mu, non-Italic type, italic) is a metric prefix, unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of one millionth (10−6). It comes from the Ancient Greek, Greek word (), meaning "small". It is the ...

and

nanotechnologies Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propert ...

for biomedical applications. In 2009, Meng was named on

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "''The''" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then pu ...

's " Innovators Under 35" List for her work on

micropump Micropumps are devices that can control and manipulate small fluid volumes. Although any kind of small pump is often referred to as a micropump, a more accurate definition restricts this term to pumps with functional dimensions in the micrometer ...

s that deliver drugs preventing blindness, and she was listed on the 40 Under 40 List of the Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry (MDDI) in 2012.

Life and education

Meng received her B.S. in engineering and applied science as well as her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

in 1997, 1998, and 2003, respectively.

Career

Upon completing her Ph.D. in 2003 Meng joined the USC family. She was previously Dwight C. and Hildagarde E. Baum Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering from 2015 to 2018 and an inaugural holder of the Gabilan Distinguished Professorship in Science and Engineering from 2016 to 2019.

Research

Meng leads the Biomedical Microsystems Laboratory at USC that focuses on developing novel micro- and nanotechnologies for biomedical applications. Specifically, the research lab is interested in the integration of multiple modalities (e.g. electrical, mechanical, and chemical) in miniaturized devices measuring no more than a few millimeters for use in fundamental scientific research, biomedical diagnostics, and therapy.

Start-ups

Meng's research and collaborations led to the launch of USC startup, Senseer. Senseer uses self-aware sensing devices to greatly improve a pediatric condition, hydrocephalus, that causes excessive fluid in the brain. She also co-founded the Polymer Implantable Electrode (PIE) Foundry, which is funded by the NIH BRAIN Initiative. This Foundry is dedicated to developing polymer microelectrode arrays (MEA) for chronic animal experiments that provide a new technological approach for neural recording and stimulation.

Awards

Meng has received numerous distinguished awards throughout the years, and was recently awarded the Shelly and Ofer Nemirovsky Chair in Convergent Biosciences at

. In 2019, she was awarded the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award in Sensors. Her research has culminated in a number of outstanding achievements, including in 2015 the Orange County Engineering Council Distinguished Engineering Merit Award, in 2014 3rd Place student paper award at IEEE EMBS Conference, best paper at the 15th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators, and Microsystems (Transducers 2009), and best paper in 2006 at Micro Total Analysis Systems Conference. As a faculty member, she has earned numerous awards, including an

NSF CAREER Award The National Science Foundation CAREER award is the most prestigious award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States Federal Government to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through rese ...

, the Viterbi School of Engineering Early Career Chair, and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Early Career Award. In 2016 she became a USC Women in Science and Engineering Program Gabilan Distinguished Professorship in Science and Engineering.

Professional memberships

Meng has been named a fellow at a number of societies, most recently of which was in 2018, where she was named Fellow of the

National Academy of Inventors The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, following the model of the National Academies of the United States. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 201 ...

. In 2017, she was named Fellow of

Biomedical Engineering Society BMES (the Biomedical Engineering Society) is the professional society for students, faculty, researchers and industry working in the broad area of biomedical engineering. BMES is the leading biomedical engineering society in the United States and w ...

, as well as Fellow of the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing edu ...

. She was named

Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and ot ...

in 2016 ''for contributions to biomedical microelectromechanical systems''. In 2014, for outstanding research and translational contributions to the field of biomedical microdevices and for the education and mentoring of young engineers, she was named a fellow of the

American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) is a non-profit organization founded in 1991, and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It represents 50,000 medical and Biomedical engineering, biomedical engineers, and academic i ...

Outreach

Meng participates in a number of outreach opportunities, and was awarded the 2016 USC Faculty Mentoring Faculty Award, the 2013 USC Mellon Mentoring Culture of Mentoring Award,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meng, Ellis Fellows of the IEEE Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) California Institute of Technology alumni Place of birth missing (living people)