Nico de Rooij
Professor Emeritus
Fields of expertise
Microsystems Technology, MEMS, Sensors & Actuators, Lab-on-a-Chip, Nanotools, Optical MEMS with applications in medicine, ecology, space research or watchmaking.
Biography
Nico de Rooij is Professor Emeritus of EPFL and former Vice-President of CSEM SA.He was Professor of Microengineering at EPFL and Head of the Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Laboratory (SAMLAB) from 2009 until 2016.
His research activities include the design, micro fabrication and application of miniaturized silicon based sensors, actuators, and microsystems. He authored and coauthored over 300 published journal articles.
He was Professor at the University of Neuchatel and Head of the Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Laboratory (SAMLAB) from 1982 to 2008. From October 1990 until October 1996 and again from October 2002 until June 2008, he served as Director of the Institute of Microtechnology at the University of Neuchatel (IMT UniNE).
He also lectured at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETHZ) and since 1989, he was part-time full professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL). He was Director of EPFL’s Institute of Microengineering (EPFL IMT) from 2009 to 2012, following the transfer of the IMT Uni-NE to EPFL's School of Engineering.
He was appointed Vice-President of the CSEM SA in February 2008 and headed the newly created Microsystems Technology Division of CSEM SA.
Furthermore, he has directed and co-directed over 80 doctoral theses during his academic career. The components and microsystems created in his laboratory have given rise to several start-ups in the Neuchâtel region (Seyonic SA, Sercalo SA, 1Drop Diagnostics)
Nico de Rooij is a Fellow of the IEEE (2001) and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK) (2004). He is recipient of the IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Gold Medal (2007), the Schlumberger Prize (1992), the MNE Fellow Award 2016 and the Prix Gaïa (2022).
He was awarded a Visiting Investigatorship Program (VIP) in MEMS/NEMS Systems by A*STAR Science and Engineering Council (SERC), Singapore and hosted by SIMTech for the period 2005-2008.
Nico de Rooij is Corresponding Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and Individual Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW). He was serving on the Editorial Boards of the IEEE/ASME Journal of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (IEEE JMEMS), the IEEE Proceedings, the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering (JM&M), Sensors and Actuators and Sensors and Materials. He was Member of the Information and Communication Technology Jury of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards from 2009 to 2012.
He received his M.Sc. degree in physical chemistry from the State University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, in 1975, and a Ph.D. degree from Twente University of Technology, The Netherlands, in 1978. From 1978 to 1982, he worked at the Research and Development Department of Cordis Europa N.V., The Netherlands.