October 7, 2004

Mirkin receives NIH award

Chad A. Mirkin, George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry and director of the Institute for Nanotechnology, has received the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Mirkin is George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry and director of the Institute for Nanotechnology.

photo by Bill Arsenault

Established in January 2004, the Director’s Pioneer Award recognizes exceptional researchers and thinkers from multiple disciplines who have highly innovative ideas and approaches to contemporary challenges in biomedical research. Mirkin is one of only nine awardees from the approximately 1,000 nominations NIH received from around the country and the only awardee from the Midwest.

As part of the award, Mirkin will receive approximately $4.5 million over five years to allow him the time and resources to test far-ranging ideas with the potential to make extraordinary contributions to medical research.

Mirkin is world-renowned for his development of medical diagnostic systems based upon nanomaterials. In addition, he is the inventor and chief developer of Dip-Pen Nanolithography, a groundbreaking nanoscale analytical tool, and is the founder of Nanosphere and NanoInk, two Chicago-based companies.

Mirkin’s awards include the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences; the ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award; Discover 2000 Innovation of the Year Award; the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology; and the Leo Hendrick Baekeland Award.