UB engineer receives Qualcomm Faculty Award

Kwang W. Oh, professor of electrical and biomedical engineering, has been awarded a 2019 Qualcomm Faculty Award (QFA) for research that “inspires students and sparks new approaches in key technology areas.”

A Qualcomm spokesman said Oh was recognized for his work in microfluidic technology — “specifically, the truly innovative idea he has demonstrated in fabricating three-dimensional microfluidic test phantoms using cotton candy,” an idea “truly demonstrating both his creativity and ability to think out of the box.”  

A multinational semiconductor and telecommunications company that designs and markets wireless telecommunications products and services, Qualcomm supports higher education research through several programs, including research grants, lab funding and the Qualcomm Faculty Award, which recognizes innovative faculty research in key technology areas with a charitable donation to the faculty member’s institution.

Oh joined the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2006 after five years with Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, where he served as a member of an initiative biomedical R&D team. He serves as director of UB’s Sensors and MicroActuators Learning Lab (SMALL), which focuses on biological micro-electro-mechanical-systems (BioMEMS), microfluidics and sensors, important areas that continue to impact development of lab-on-a-chip (LOC), point-of-care (POC), high-throughput, cell study and unconventional microfluidic applications.

Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading researchers and inventors in the field of microfluidics, Oh has authored or co-authored more than 140 technical publications, and holds 21 U.S. patents and 49 foreign patents, most for innovations with biomedical microfluidic devices and micro-scale polymerase chain reaction (MicroPCR) for LOC and POC diagnostics.

He has served as co-chair for the Micro & Bio Fluidics, Lab-on-Chip symposium at the annual Nanotech Conference & Expo since 2012; and as an editorial board member and guest editor for the journals Sensors, Micromachines and Biomedical Engineering Letters.

Among his numerous awards are the 2017 Senior Teacher of the Year, UB Engineering; 2012 Lab Chip Emerging Investigators, Royal Society of Chemistry; 2004 Six-Sigma Best Practice Award, Samsung Group; and 2003 Honor of CEO, Samsung Electronics Annual Award.