Aaron Roe Hawkins (born February 26, 1970) is an American engineer known for his work in

optofluidics Optofluidics is a research and technology area that combines the advantages of fluidics (in particular microfluidics) and optics. Applications of the technology include displays, biosensors, Lab-on-a-chip, lab-on-chip devices, lenses, and molecular ...

. He is a professor and chair in the department of electrical and computer engineering at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

Education and career

Hawkins was born in

Rehoboth, New Mexico Rehoboth is an unincorporated community in McKinley County, New Mexico, United States. Rehoboth is located along Interstate 40, east of downtown Gallup. Rehoboth has a post office with ZIP code 87322. It has a population of 56 permanent residen ...

. He received his B.S. degree 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 applied physics in 1994, and went on to the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

for his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering, which he completed in 1998. His dissertation, ''Silicon-Indium-Gallium-Arsenide Avalanche Photodetectors'', was supervised by John E. Bowers. He held several jobs in industry before moving to Brigham Young in 2002. He is a past Editor-in-Chief of the ''

IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics The ''IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering optical, electrical, and electronics engineering, and some applied aspects of lasers, physical optics, and quantum electronics. It is published by the IEEE ...

.''

Research

One of the research projects led by Hawkins developed optofluidic single-chip devices for rapid diagnosis of

antibiotic resistance Antimicrobial resistance (AMR or AR) occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from antimicrobials, which are drugs used to treat infections. This resistance affects all classes of microbes, including bacteria (antibiotic resis ...

in bacterial infections. These devices operate on a sample of the bacteria causing the infection by attaching fluorescent markers to the genes for antibiotic resistance in DNA from the sample, using a laser to illuminate the marked samples, and scanning the resulting fluorescence to detect whether the genes are present. In their work on this project, Hawkins's team discovered that a layer of matte black

nail polish Nail polish (also known as nail varnish in British English or nail enamel) is a lacquer that can be applied to the human Nail (anatomy), fingernails or toenails to decorate and protect the nail plates. The formula has been revised repeatedly t ...

with openings in specified locations could be used to make an effective light guide. As well as his work on optofluidics, Hawkins has contributed his expertise to the

Biological Oxidant and Life Detection The Biological Oxidant and Life Detection (BOLD) is a concept mission to Mars focused on searching for evidence or biosignatures of microscopic life on Mars. The BOLD mission objective would be to quantify the amount of hydrogen peroxide () exist ...

proposed Mars landing mission, working on a

mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used ...

device to measure the size and electrostatic properties of

Martian dust Martian regolith is the fine blanket of unconsolidated, loose, heterogeneous superficial deposits covering the surface of Mars. The term ''Martian soil'' typically refers to the finer fraction of regolith. So far, no samples have been returned to ...

Books

With Stephen Schultz, Hawkins is the author of the textbook ''Practically Magic: A Guide to Electrical and Computer Engineering'' (Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2013). Hawkins coedited the ''Handbook of Optofluidics'' (CRC Press, 2017) with Holger Schmidt. Hawkins is also the author of a children's book, ''The Year Money Grew On Trees''. The book, based on Hawkins' childhood in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, follows a thirteen-year-old who agrees to work the apple orchard of his neighbor.

Short stories

Aaron Hawkin's current project is a series of short stories called 500 Ironic Stories. They are available to be read for free or listened to on many podcast platforms.

Awards and honors

Hawkins was elected a Fellow of the Optical Society in 2015 for "developments in optical communications photodiodes and receivers, specifically wafer-fused photodiodes, and for contributions in the field of optofluidics, especially hollow-core waveguide-based analysis platforms." He was named as a

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 ...

(IEEE) in 2016 "for contributions to optofluidics." In 2019 he received the

IEEE Photonics Society The IEEE Photonics Society, formerly the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS), is a society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), focused on the scientific and engineering knowledge about the field of quantum e ...

Engineering Achievement Award, jointly with his collaborator, Holger Schmidt of

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

, "for the invention and development of optofluidic waveguides and their applications, in particular commercialization for biomedical diagnostics." Engineering Achievement Award

. Accessed October 31, 2019.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Aaron Fellows of the IEEE Living people Brigham Young University faculty 21st-century American engineers 1970 births Fellows of Optica (society) California Institute of Technology alumni University of California, Santa Barbara alumni People from McKinley County, New Mexico Engineers from New Mexico American academic journal editors