David G. Grier

David Grier is a Professor of Physics at New York University and Director of NYU's Center for Soft Matter Research. Raised in New York City, Prof. Grier attended Harvard College, where he graduated with high honors in Physics.

He received his doctorate in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1989. After two years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Condensed Matter Physics Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories, he accepted a faculty position at the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the Physics Department for twelve years. He moved to New York University in 2004 and served as Department Chair for eight years. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, was awarded a Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering, and was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. He was named one of the Scientific American 50 and one of Discover Magazine's top 20 scientists under 40, and has won undergraduate teaching awards at both NYU and the University of Chicago.

Prof. Grier's research focuses on experimental soft condensed matter physics, a new and rapidly growing interdisciplinary field at the interface between physics, chemistry, biology and nanotechnology. Prof. Grier has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles on basic research in this area, and has been awarded more than fifty U.S. Patents for technology developed in the course of this research. The first commercial implementation of his holographic trapping technology was recognized with an R&D 100 Award in 2000.