Andreas Hierlemann

Andreas Hierlemann ( born August 17, 1964 in Ochsenhausen ) is a German chemist and professor of Biosystems Engineering at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He is known for his work in the field of CMOS-based chemical and Biomikrosensorsysteme as well as for high-density microelectrode arrays.

Life

From 1985 to 1991 Hierlemann studied chemistry at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He received his Ph.D. there in 1996 (PhD) for his work on mass -sensitive detection of volatile organic compounds with modified polysiloxanes. 1997 to 1998 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Texas A & M University in College Station, Texas, USA and at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. From 1999 to 2004 he was a research team leader at the Physical Electronics Laboratory, Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland and in 2004 was an associate professor of microsensors. 2008 Hierlemann was Associate Professor of Biosystems Engineering at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel, Switzerland.

Scientific contribution

HIerlemanns research focus was initially on chemical sensors and micro-sensors. He worked in particular on the detection of volatile organic compounds and Enantiomerendetektion in the gas phase. In addition, he was concerned with micro-technology and especially with the development of complex CMOS-based micro-sensor systems. His current research is in the interdisciplinary field of engineering and physics for applications in biology and medicine. This includes the development of CMOS-based, integrated chemical and Biomikrosysteme and the development of bioelelektronischen chips and high-density microelectrode arrays. High-Density Microelectrode arrays are used for basic research in the field of information processing of neurons, or brain cells. Moreover Hierlemanns research group involved in the development of the microfluidic chip to study the properties of individual cells, and micro- tissues.

Applications of the technologies that develop Hierlemann and his group are in the field of systems biology, the pharmaceutical screenings, personalized medicine and the neurosciences.

Awards

• 2005 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award
• 2008 EUR sensor Fellow