News Release

K-State chemistry professor to receive Masao Horiba award

For research with microfluidic devices

Grant and Award Announcement

Kansas State University

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- An award-winning Kansas State University chemistry professor's most recent honor comes from a Japanese company recognizing him for work on microfluidic devices.

Chris Culbertson, associate professor of chemistry, has won a 2007 Masao Horiba Award for "Rapid Analysis of Individual T-Lymphocyte Cells on Microfluidic Devices." He will receive the award Wednesday, Oct. 17, during a special ceremony at Kyoto University in Japan, where he also will present a lecture describing his research.

The award is named for the founder of Horiba Ltd., a company that manufactures, sells and markets measurement and analysis tools used in fields ranging from medical diagnostics and automotive emissions to the semiconductor industry. Established in 2004, the award promotes research activities in the field of analysis and measurement technology by researchers working at universities and public research institutes in Japan and abroad.

Culbertson's project was one of three chosen from among 29 nominations. The winners were selected for the future potential of the researcher, originality of the research and the possibility of the research being developed into unique measurement instruments. The award is designed to support the commercialization of prizewinning research.

"Professor Culbertson's receipt of the Horiba Award demonstrates significant international recognition of his research program and adds to the impressive list of accolades he's received since beginning his K-State career in 2002," said Eric Maatta, who heads K-State's department of chemistry.

In 2006, Culbertson received a five-year CAREER award from the National Science Foundation to develop chemical analysis tools for "lab-on-a-chip" devices. The small pieces of glass are etched with channels smaller in diameter than a human hair.

Culbertson also is the winner of the 2006 Award for Young Investigators in Separation Science and K-State's 2007 Segebrecht Distinguished Teaching Faculty Achievement Award. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Harvard College and a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of West Florida. He earned a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a postdoctoral associate and later a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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