Albert Folch Folch ( ; born September 25, 1966) is a Spanish/Catalan scientist, writer, and artist. He is the son of editor Xavier Fol

and sinologist Dolors Fol

He is currently a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the Department of

Bioengineering Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number ...

at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

who is known for his research into

Microfluidics Microfluidics refers to a system that manipulates a small amount of fluids (10−9 to 10−18 liters) using small channels with sizes of ten to hundreds of micrometres. It is a multidisciplinary field that involves molecular analysis, molecular bi ...

and

BioMEMS Bio-MEMS is an abbreviation for biomedical (or biological) microelectromechanical systems. Bio-MEMS have considerable overlap, and is sometimes considered synonymous, with lab on a chip, lab-on-a-chip (LOC) and Total analysis system, micro total an ...

as well as his works of scientific art.

Background

Folch received his B.Sc. in Physics from the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

(U.B.) in 1989. In 1994, he received his Ph.D. in

Surface Science Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid– gas interfaces, solid– vacuum interfaces, and liquid– gas interfaces. It includes the ...

and

Nanotechnology 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 propertie ...

from the U.B.'s Physics Dept. under Dr. Javier Tejada's supervision. During his Ph.D. he was also a visiting scientist (1990–91) at the

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a federally funded research and development center in the hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established in 1931 by the University of California (UC), the laboratory is spo ...

(

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

, California) working on

Atomic Force Microscopy Atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning force microscopy (SFM) is a very-high-resolution type of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), with demonstrated resolution on the order of fractions of a nanometer, more than 1000 times better than the opti ...

under Dr. Miquel Salmeron. From 1994 to 1996, he was a postdoc at

M.I.T. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sci ...

developing microdevices under the advice of Martin A. Schmidt (EECS Dept.) and

Mark S. Wrighton Mark Stephen Wrighton (born June 11, 1949) is an American academic and chemist. From 1995 to 2019, he served as the List of chancellors of Washington University in St. Louis, 14th Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, where he overs ...

(Chemistry). In 1997, he joined the laboratory of Dr.

Mehmet Toner Mehmet Toner (born 1958) is a Turkish biomedical engineering, biomedical engineer. He is currently the Helen Andrus Benedict Professor of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School, with a joint appointment as prof ...

as a postdoc at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

's Center for Engineering in Medicine to work on

and

Tissue Engineering Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of cells, engineering, materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintain, improve, or replace different types of biolo ...

. In 2000 he joined the

's Dept. of

(

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

), where he is a full professor. In 2001 he received a

National Science Foundation 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 ...

, and in 2014 he was elected to 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 ...

(AIMBE) College of Fellows Class of 2015. In 2022, he was elected Corresponding Member of the Science&Technology Section of the

Institute for Catalan Studies The Institute for Catalan Studies ( ), also known by the acronym IEC, is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture". It is based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. IEC The IEC is known ...

(''Institut d’Estudis Catalans'', Catalonia, Spain), one of highest honors bestowed upon Catalan scientists. He has served on the

advisory board An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to the ...

of the BioMEMS journal '' Lab on a Chip'' since 2006 and on the editorial boards of ''Technology'' and ''Micromachines'' since 2013 and 2019, respectively.

Scientific research and teaching

The Folch Lab works on the interface between

microfluidics Microfluidics refers to a system that manipulates a small amount of fluids (10−9 to 10−18 liters) using small channels with sizes of ten to hundreds of micrometres. It is a multidisciplinary field that involves molecular analysis, molecular bi ...

and

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. The lab develops microfluidic devices to test multiple cancer drugs on a small, live, intact tumor biopsy at high fidelity in order to help doctors decide which drug is most efficacious. The lab also develops

3D printing 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

approaches to make microfluidic devices as easy to use as

smartphones A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as mult ...

and make them easily available to clinicians in order to enable novel cancer diagnostics and therapies. As part of the undergraduate and graduate curriculum of the University of Washington's Bioengineering Department, Folch has taught a course on

from 2001-2024 that led to his textbook ''Introduction to BioMEMS'' (CRC Press, 2012) and a course on Cancer Biosensors since 2015.

Artistic activity

The Folch Lab produces microscopy images of microchannels and cells that it then uses to run an artistic outreach program called "BAIT", short for "Bringing Art Into Technology". The micrographs act as ''baits'' to entice people to read the accompanying texts (the science) displayed next to the images. Hence, the visitors of the exhibit enjoy the art and leave having learned some science via an artistic experience. While a few of the micrographs are exhibited as obtained by the students without much modification, most pieces are collages, mosaics, and/or mixed-media montages (containing actual devices) made by Folch. However, Folch considers each piece a "collaboration" between him and his students (who are always credited by name, as in a scientific publication). BAIT now consists of a free online gallery (with more than 1,000 images), a YouTube channel, and more than 60 printed or framed pieces. BAIT has produced six major exhibits. The largest exhibit was at the University of Washington's Allen Library in 2010. In 2013, BAIT was exhibited in the halls of the 2013

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 ...

meeting in the

Seattle Convention Center The Seattle Convention Center (SCC), formerly the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC), is a convention center in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. It consists of two buildings in Downtown Seattle with exhibition hall ...

. In 2014, six pieces from BAIT were exhibited during the Mahato Memorial at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, the first time that BAIT was invited outside of Seattle. BAIT has been featured twice on TV ( UWTV in January 2012 and

NTN24 NTN24 (acronym for Nuestra Tele Noticias 24) is a Colombian cable television news channel, owned and operated by RCN Televisión. NTN24 was launched on 3 November 2008 with journalist Claudia Gurisatti appointed as the channel's first editoria ...

in November 2014 ). Folch's artistic activity extends into graphic design. He has designed the logo for the University of Washington's Bioengineering Department and Folch Lab's art has been used in a number of brochures of scientific venues.

Literary activity

Folch has written a total of five books, comprising two general science books in Catalan (translated titles: ''Caught on the Internet'' and ''The Science in Soccer''), a textbook in English (''Introduction to BioMEMS''), a book about soccer in English (''For the Love of the Ball''), and a microfluidics book in English (''Hidden In Plain Sight - The History, Science, and Engineering of Microfluidic Technology''). * ''Caught on the Internet'' (Editorial Empuries, 1997) teaches what the Internet is about to computer-illiterate audiences, starting from bits and bytes and ending with issues such as social fairness and hackers. This book is in its second edition and an extract of it is used in a textbook for Catalan middle schoolers. * ''The Science in Soccer'' (Editorial Empuries, 2004) uses soccer examples to convey science. The book is organized in chapters related to various soccer subjects ("The ball", "The field", "The player", etc.). Inside each chapter we find the answers to questions such as what it would be like to play soccer in each of the planets of the Solar System, why the ball is more than one meter ahead of where we think it really is in a 100 km/h kick (due to delays in the transmission of the nervous impulse), or why soccer balls are made of 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons, etc. Folch has used examples from this book to give outreach lectures to high-schools, middle-schools and elementary schools. * ''Introduction to BioMEMS'' (CRC Press, 2012) covers the whole breadth of

Bio-MEMS Bio-MEMS is an abbreviation for biomedical (or biological) microelectromechanical systems. Bio-MEMS have considerable overlap, and is sometimes considered synonymous, with lab-on-a-chip (LOC) and micro total analysis systems (). Bio-MEMS is typic ...

(Biomedical MicroElectroMechanicalSystems), including classical microfabrication, microfluidics, tissue engineering, cell-based and non-cell-based devices, and implantable systems. This textbook has now been adopted worldwide (~100 departments in 18 countries). * ''For the Love of the Ball'' (Amazon, 2013) tells the history and methods of FC Barcelona's youth academy. Folch kept a related blog site during 2014-2017, titled ''La Ciencia del Fútbol'', where he talked about FC Barcelona's state of affairs with a scientific perspective. * ''Hidden In Plain Sight'' (MIT Press, 2022) describes the development and use of key microfluidic devices, explaining not only the technology but also the efforts, teams, places, and circumstances that enabled these inventions. Folch also created a large Catalan Poetry Selection. This webpage, originally hosted by M.I.T. and manually typed in 1995 just one year after the World Wide Web started, was, at the time, the first online literary resource of its kind and size in any language. Still widely visited, the selection features 800 poems and 176 Catalan poets spanning ten centuries, including 24 unpublished poets.

Media coverage

The Folch Lab has been featured in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' (February 2, 2003, Technology section), ''

Science News ''Science News'' (''SN'') is an American monthly magazine devoted to articles about new scientific and technical developments, typically gleaned from recent scientific and technical journals. The periodical has been described as having a scop ...

'' (February 15, 2003 issue), ''

Physics World ''Physics World'' is the membership magazine of the Institute of Physics, one of the largest physical societies in the world. It is an international monthly magazine covering all areas of physics, pure and applied, and is aimed at physicists in ...

'' (March 2003 issue), '' Materials Today'' (April 2003 issue), ''

Photonics Spectra Photonics Spectra is a monthly business-to-business (B2B) magazine published for the engineers, scientists, and end users who develop, commercialize and buy photonic products. It provides both technical and applications information for all aspe ...

'' (April 2003 issue), '' BioPhotonics International'' (May 2003 issue), '' Proto'' (Fall 2008 issue), ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' (October 28, 2008, Health section), UWTV (January 2012),

(November 2014). New Zealand magazine ''The SpinOff'' (15/2/2017 article), YouTube interviews by ElveFlow (July 2017) and by BIOS / Frontier Science (December 2021).

Awards and honors

* 2000

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 ...

* 2006

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Space Act Award. * 2014 AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2015 * 2022 Elected Corresponding Member of the

(''Institut d’Estudis Catalans'', Catalonia, Spain), Science&Technology Section

Exhibits

* 2009 Art exhibit at the

Harborview Medical Center Harborview Medical Center is a public hospital located in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is owned by King County and managed by UW Medicine. Overview Harborview Medical Center is the designated Disast ...

(March 2009). * 2009 Art exhibit at the University of Washington's Meany Theater (September 2009September 2010). * 2010 Art exhibit at the University of Washington's Allen Library (November 2010March 2011). * 2013 Art exhibit at the 2013

Meeting (Seattle, October 2013) * 2014 Art exhibit at

's 2014 Mahato Memorial

References

External links

Folch Lab official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Folch, Albert Folch University of Barcelona alumni 1966 births Living people Spanish bioengineers Spanish biophysicists