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Tuan Vo-Dinh

Dr. Tuan Vo-Dinh
Advisor

Dr. Tuan Vo-Dinh is the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Chemistry, and Director of The Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics at Duke University.

Vo-Dinh earned a Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry from the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich, Switzerland. He joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tenn., in 1977 as a staff research scientist and ultimately became a corporate fellow, one of the highest honors for distinguished scientists at ORNL, in 1994. He became director of the Center for Advanced Biomedical Photonics at ORNL in 2003. Vo-Dinh has held adjunct faculty positions at a number of universities.

Vo-Dinh has developed a range of instruments and devices aimed at advancing scientific inquiry and detecting chemical exposure and disease. While at ORNL, Vo-Dinh won seven R&D 100 Awards for his inventions. They ranged from a passive dosimeter capable of detecting a person's exposure to toxic organic chemicals to the Multi-functional Biochip, which allows simultaneous detection of several diseases.

Vo-Dinh holds more than 30 patents and his inventions are being used in environmental, biological and medical applications. He won the Gold Medal Spectroscopy Award from the Society for Applied Spectroscopy in 1988 and was awarded the U.S. Department of Energy BER-50 Award for distinguished service to a healthy citizenry in 1997. He was also awarded the International Hall of Fame Award in Advanced Technology from the Inventor Clubs of America in 1992.

Vo-Dinh envisions a range of rugged, low-cost miniaturized tools to meet the needs of health care providers working in the field under adverse environmental conditions. Such technology could include optical nanosensors capable of detecting molecular changes at the cellular level; optical biochip technology to make routine lab tests portable and cost effective; or quantum optics to make personalized medical information transmission safe and secure.