Keynote: John Rogers

Wireless Skin-Conformal Devices for Health Monitoring and Haptic Interactions

Advances in materials science, mechanical engineering and manufacturing methods establish the foundations for high performance classes of electronics technologies that have soft, flexible physical properties. The resulting devices can mount gently on the skin, at nearly any location across the body, to provide continuous, clinical-quality information on physiological status, with options in complex, large-area multi-haptic forms of engagement and feedback. This talk summarizes the key ideas and presents examples in wireless devices for (1) maternal, fetal, neonatal and pediatric care in clinical facilities and home settings, and (2) full-body haptic experiences in virtual/augmented reality environments.

Professor John A. Rogers obtained BA and BS degrees in chemistry and in physics from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1989. From MIT, he received SM degrees in physics and in chemistry in 1992 and the PhD degree in physical chemistry in 1995. From 1995 to 1997, Rogers was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard University Society of Fellows. He joined Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff in the Condensed Matter Physics Research Department in 1997, and served as Director of this department from the end of 2000 to 2002. He then spent thirteen years on the faculty at University of Illinois, most recently as the Swanlund Chair Professor and Director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory. In the Fall of 2016, he joined Northwestern University as the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Medicine, with affiliate appointments in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Chemistry, where he is also Director of the Querrey-Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics. He has published more than 850 papers and his research has been recognized by many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship (2009), the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2011), the Smithsonian Award (2013), the Benjamin Franklin Medal (2019) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2021). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.