Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao

Chairman

Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao has been working in the area of micro-cantilevers and nano-sensor based devices for over 20 years. He has over 350 publications in the area of electron devices and nanoelectronics in refereed international journals and conference proceedings. He is also an inventor with over 28 patents and patent applications. Many of his patents are licensed to industries for commercialization.Prof. Rao has supervised / co-supervised over 100 master’s students and 23 PhD students at IIT – Bombay in the area of nanoelectronics since the year 2000. Some of the notable recognitions he has received include the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences in 2005 and the Infosys Prize in 2013. Prof. Rao is also the recipient of the Swarnajayanti Fellowship award from the Department of Science & Technology, IBM Faculty award and Best Research award from the Intel Asia Academic Forum, among others. Prof. Rao was an editor for IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices from 2003 to 2012 in the CMOS devices and technology area, and currently serves on the editorial boards of various other international journals. Prof. Rao is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy. Prof. Rao has been recently appointed as the Director of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Dr. Nitin S. Kale

Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer

Dr.Nitin S. Kale obtained his M. Tech from VNIT Nagpur in 1999, and his Ph. D. from the Electrical Engineering Department at IIT Bombay in 2007. During 2007 – 2008, he worked as a Principal Engineer at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, on the 32-nm High-K Metal Gate project. In 2009 he joined the IIT Bombay Nanomanufacturing Facility as its Manager. In this role he was responsible for the day to day operations and management of the Rs 200 Crore IIT Bombay Nanofabrication Facility.

Since co-founding Nanosniff Technologies in June 2011, he is working as its Chief Technology Officer. In this role he is responsible for the R&D in the area of fabricating microcantilever sensors, microheaters; and developing instruments for detecting proteins, cardiac-markers and antibodies.

He has developed several MEMS Products (Devices & Instrumentation), which include:
1. Instruments: (i) Omnicant; (ii) Omnicant Bio;
2. MEMS Devices: (i) Piezoresistive Microcantilevers; (ii) Microheaters;
(iii) Microheaters with IDE’s.

He has demonstrated the Proof of Concept of detecting Cardiac Proteins (hFAbP, Myoglobin etc) using Piezoresistive Microcantilevers, Ultrasensitive electronics, & a Custom-made Liquid-Cell.

Mr. Kapil Bardeja

Co-founder and Director (Strategy)

Mr. Kapil Bardeja is a post graduate from IIT-Delhi and a serial entrepreneur with a track record of incubating and growing technology companies. Kapil is the CEO at NanoSniff and is involved in planning, strategic decision making and steering the organizational structure. He has co-founded technology start-ups in the past and specializes in academia – industry interaction and technology transfer. Kapil brings a wealth of experience as a Senior Business Leader with over 10 years’ experience in Sales & Marketing and developing Computer Vision and Electronics based solutions for the Security and Surveillance market. Kapil is also a member of the “National Innovation Council on Nanoelectronics”. He has worked in the past with renowned companies like Mckinsey & Co. and Aventis.

Mr. Amit Goyal

Director

Mr. Amit Goyal is a Chemical Engineer and has funded various ventures in India with a mandate to invest in Technology Start-ups focused towards Nanotechnology, ICT and Biotechnology. Mr. Goyal is also the Managing Director of Priaas Investments (P) Ltd. (PIPL) & AG Venture Capital (P) Ltd. (AVPL) and his other ventures include Amsaki Homsafe Ltd. – a company engaged in manufacturing of M2M products for vehicle & home security and A.P. Engineering – an OEM supplier to Automobile Manufacturers.

Prof. Soumyo Mukherji

Chairman - Scientific Advisory Board

Prof. Soumyo Mukherji received his B.Tech. Degree in Instrumentation from IIT-Kharagpur, MS in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University (Fort Collins, USA) and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, USA). He is currently working in Biomedical Engineering Group, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay as a Professor. He is currently the in charge of the Centre for Research in Nanotechnology and Sciences as the Head of the Centre. His research interests include sensors including biosensors, instrumentation and wide scale deployable sensing platforms.. He has worked extensively in developing sensors for field use and his prototypes of optical sensor based systems for waterborne pathogens are currently being tested in DRDO laboratories.

Dr. Thomas Thundat

Dr. Thomas Thundat is currently a Professor at the University of Alberta, Canada. He was earlier a corporate Fellow and the leader of the Nanoscale Science and Devices Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his Ph.D in physics from State University of New York at Albany in 1987. He is the author of over 215 publications in referred journals, 45 book chapters, 24 patents and 7 pending patents. Dr. Thundat is the recipient of many awards that include the U.S. Department of Energy’s Young Scientist Award, R&D 100 Awards (1996&2004), Inventors Hall of Fame Award, AMSE Emerging Technology Award, Discover Magazine Award, FLC Awards (2000, 2003, 2005), ASME Pioneer Award, Scientific American 50 Award, Jesse Beams Award, and several UT-Battelle Awards for invention, publication, and Research and Development. Dr. Thundat was also named ORNL Inventor of the Year in 2000 and in 2003 and is also a Battelle Distinguished Inventor. Dr. Thundat’s research is currently focused on novel physical, chemical, and biological detection using micro and nano mechanical sensors. His expertise includes physics and chemistry of interfaces, solid-liquid interface, biophysics, scanning probes, nanoscale phenomena, and quantum confined atoms.