About the Organizers
Leslie Yeo is currently an Australian Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Co-Director of the Micro/Nanophysics Research Laboratory at Monash University, Australia.
He received his PhD from Imperial College London in 2002, for which he was awarded the Dudley Newitt prize for a computational/theoretical thesis of outstanding merit. Prior to joining Monash University, he was a Mathematical Modeller at Det Norske Veritas UK and a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, USA. Dr Yeo was the recipient of the 2007 Young Tall Poppy Science Award from the Australian Institute for Policity & Science 'in recognition of the achievements of outstanding young researchers in the sciences including physical, biomedical, applied sciences, engineering and technology', and a finalist in the 2008 Australian Museum's Eureka Prize People's Choice Award.
His work has been featured widely in the media, for example, on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's science television program Catalyst, the 3RRR radio broadcast Einstein-a-go-go, and in various articles in The Economist, The Washington Times, The Age, ABC Science Online, and Discovery Channel Online. Dr Yeo is the author of over 70 peer reviewed research publications and 15 patent applications, and is currently the Associate Editor of the American Institute of Physics journal Biomicrofluidics. He is also co-author of the book 'Electrokinetically-Driven Microfluidics and Nanofluidics', which is currently in press (Cambridge University Press).
James Friend is an associate professor and the deputy head of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He joined Monash University in late 2004, and co-founded and co-directs the $6.5 million MicroNanophysics Research Laboratory with clean room and biolab, a current staff of three academics, three post-doctorates and thirteen PhD students.
He is now an associate professor, research training coordinator and deputy head of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Monash University, with research interests in micro/nanodevices for biomedical applications. He is a member of IEEE, ASME, Golden Key, the Lifeboat Foundation for the safe uses of nanotechnology, and a committee member of IEEE Nanotechnology for Biology, and has over ninety peer-reviewed publications, with six book chapters, fourty-six peer-reviewed journal papers, and thirteen patents and patent applications.
He received two awards—the AIAA Jefferson Student Goblet and ASME Presentation Award—for his presentation on ultrasonic motor analysis at the AIAA/ASME/AHS/ASC 26th Annual Structural Dynamics Conference in 1996 as a student, an award for the encouragement of young scientists at the Symposium for Ultrasonic Electronics and Engineering in 2003 for a presentation on acoustic waveguides, an award in 2004 for a presentation on the Scream actuator at the Spring Meeting of the Acoustical Society of Japan, an excellence in teaching award in 2007 and early career researcher award in 2008 from the Monash Faculty of Engineering, and a Australian Leadership award from the Davos Future Summit in Sydney in 2008.
