Dr. Sumita Pennathur
Professor
Mechanical Engineering
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumita-pennathur-98546b/
Dr. Pennathur received her B.S. and M.S. in Aerospace and Aeronautical Engineering from M.I.T. (2000 and 2001 respectively), and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University (2006). Prior to joining UCSB in 2007, she performed postdoctoral studies at both Sandia National Laboratories and University of Twente.
Since arriving at UCSB, Pennathur has contributed significantly to the fields of nanofluidics and interfacial science. She has been able to push the envelope in both theoretical and experimental characterization of nanofluidic channels. Furthermore, she has discovered novel nanoscale concentration mechanisms which focus analytes of interest within nanofluidic channels and has demonstrated unique quantitative separations of various biomolecules. Finally, she has developed a novel fabrication process for on-chip detection of biomolecules, which has the potential to revolutionize bio-analytical devices, eliminating the need for laborious optical tagging of samples.
These major contributions have been disseminated in the form of over 60 archived journal publications, books or conference papers, 3 patent applications, and over 50 invited presentations. Notable awards include the DARPA young faculty award (2008), the UC Regents Junior Faculty Fellowship (2009), and the PECASE (presidential early career award in science and engineering) award (2010), and the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce Innovator of the Quarter Award (2012)