Marc Madou

Marc Madou earned his doctorate degree in semi-conductor electrochemistry at the University of Ghent in Belgium. He then joined SRI International, Menlo Park, California, USA, as a visiting scientist followed by a return to the University of Ghent as an Assistant Professor. In 1983, he founded SRI’s Microsensor Department in The Physical Electronics Laboratory. In 1989, he wrote his first science book (Chemical Sensing with Solid State Devices) and founded Teknekron Sensor Development Corporation (TSDC) one of the first MEMS/BIOMEMS in the Silicon Valley. Out of that very creative group came early work and patents on MEMS-based responsive drug delivery systems, micromachined switches, SOI-based micro-mirrors, AFM tips, fast electrochemical oxygen and CO sensors, and solid-state pH electrodes. From the original TSDC team, several prominent engineers emerged as some of the most successful MEMS entrepreneurs yet. In 1992, he became a Visiting Miller Professor at the University of California Berkeley and a NASA Ames Associate where his interests shifted to polymer actuators and carbon-based MEMS structures (C-MEMS). In 1997, he accepted an Endowed Chair professorship at the Ohio State University’s Materials Science and Engineering Department, combined with an appointment in the Chemistry Department. Missing California and more and more intrigued with nanotechnology he joined Nanogen Inc. in 2001 as Vice President of R&D. In July 2002, he accepted the position of Chancellor’s Professor at UC Irvine in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with a joint appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His book “Fundamentals of Microfabrication” is considered as the ‘bible’ of micromachining.