Chad Mirkin

Chad Alexander Mirkin (born November 23, 1963) is an American chemist.

He is the George B. Rathmann professor of chemistry, professor of medicine, professor of materials science and engineering, professor of biomedical engineering, and professor of chemical and biological engineering, and director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly at Northwestern University.

Mirkin is known for his development of nanoparticle-based biodetection schemes, the invention of dip-pen nanolithography (recognized by National Geographic as one of the top 100 scientific discoveries that changed the world), and contributions to supramolecular chemistry, nanoelectronics, and nanooptics.

Mirkin was born November 23, 1963, in Phoenix, Arizona.

He received his B.S. degree from Dickinson College in 1986 and his PhD from Penn State University in 1989.

He was a NSF postdoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he worked with Professor Mark S. Wrighton on microelectrode devices for electrocatalysis.

He became a professor at Northwestern University in 1991.

The focus of Mirkin's research is on developing methods for controlling the architecture of molecules and materials on the 1 – 100 nm length scale and utilizing such structures in the development of analytical tools that can be used in the areas of chemical and biological sensing, lithography, catalysis, and optics.

Mirkin has pioneered the use of DNA and nanoparticles as synthons in materials science and the development of nanoparticle-based biodiagnostics.

A common strategy used by Mirkin's group is the use of the unique properties of spherical nucleic acids (SNAs), spherical arrangements of nucleic acids with or without organic or inorganic nanoparticle cores, to enable the synthesis of novel materials and colloidal crystals, the development of high sensitivity probes for chemical and medical diagnostic purposes, and single-entity structures capable of intracellular gene regulation.

His 1996 work with SNA-gold nanoparticle conjugates introduced the concept of a nanoparticle as an atom and nucleic acids as bonds, and it laid the ground work for the fields of colloidal crystal engineering with DNA and molecular diagnostics based upon well-defined nanoparticle and nanocrystal bioconjugates.

SNAs are the cornerstone of Luminex's FDA-cleared Verigene system (now used in over half of the world's top hospitals), EMD Millipore's SmartFlare platform (licensed to AuraSense, Inc. and Holden Pharma), and seven drugs in human clinical trials.

In addition, his inventions of DPN, Polymer Pen Lithography (PPL), and Beam Pen Lithography (BPL) are the basis for the TERA-fab M and E series commercial patterning tools, known as desktop fabs (TERA-print, LLC).

He has published over 870 manuscripts, with a Google Scholar H-index of 198, and has over 1200 patents and patent applications.

From 2009 to 2017 Mirkin was appointed to President Barack Obama's President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

He co-chaired the PCAST report titled, "Engage to Excel," focusing on teaching and engagement issues involving students who are in their first two years of undergraduate study at R-1, 2 and 4-year institutions, and community colleges.

In 2010, he was listed as the most cited chemist in the world over the last decade in terms of total citations, the second highest most cited chemist in terms of impact factor, and the top most cited nanomedicine researcher.

Mirkin has been elected into all three branches of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the 10th person so honored.

He has served on several editorial advisory boards, including ACS Nano, the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Angewandte Chemie.

He is the founding editor of the nanotechnology journal Small, and he is an associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Mirkin is a co-founder of multiple companies, including NanoInk, Nanosphere (acquired by Luminex for $83M in 2016 ), Azul 3D, TERA-print, Exicure, and Stoicheia.

Information scientists at CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, singled out Mirkin and his contributions to supramolecular chemistry and nanomaterials in an article about potential future winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, saying that “Overall, Mirkin’s work set up the foundation of modern nanotechnology and development of related diagnostic, therapeutic, and material applications.”

In addition to his academic and research work, Mirkin has been involved in shaping science policy decisions.