Draft:David Erickson (academic)

David Carl Erickson (born April 8, 1976) is an American mechanical engineer, researcher and entrepreneur known for pioneering work in optofluidics and for developing portable diagnostic devices for global health. He is the S.C. Thomas Sze Director and Sibley College Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, where he also holds a joint appointment in the Division of Nutritional Sciences. Erickson has co-founded several technology companies, including the nanophotonic-instrumentation firm Halo Labs (formerly Optofluidics), the clean-energy startup Dimensional Energy and the mobile-health company VitaScan. His research spans microfluidics, photonics and point-of-care diagnostics.

Early life and education

Erickson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on 8 April 1976. He earned a BSc in mechanical engineering from the University of Alberta (1999) and an MASc (2001) and PhD (2004) in mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto. After a post-doctoral fellowship at California Institute of Technology (2005) he joined the Cornell faculty.

Career

Erickson joined Cornell's Sibley School in 2005 and later served as associate dean for research and graduate programs. In 2019 he was appointed S.C. Thomas Sze Director of the Sibley School and was reappointed in 2024. He also co-directs the Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, part of the NIH POCTRN program.

Research and contributions

Erickson’s early work helped establish the field of optofluidics, which integrates photonics and microfluidics on a single chip. In 2012 the Optical Society named him a fellow “for co-founding optofluidics”. A Kavli Foundation feature the previous year quoted Erickson on optofluidic chips for solar-fuel production.

In global-health diagnostics, Erickson and physician–nutritionist Saurabh Mehta introduced the NutriPhone in 2015, a smartphone system for micronutrient analysis. His group later developed the FeverPhone and AnemiaPhone; in 2024 Cornell announced national deployment of AnemiaPhone by India’s Council of Medical Research. Erickson also collaborates with pathologist Ethel Cesarman on KS-COMPLETE, a portable diagnostic for Kaposi sarcoma, now in clinical use across sub-Saharan Africa.

Entrepreneurship

In 2003 Erickson and PhD student Bernardo Cordovez launched Optofluidics (now Halo Labs) to commercialise nanoparticle-analysis tools. He later co-founded Dimensional Energy with Jason Salfi and Tobias Hanrath; Tompkins Weekly credits the trio with turning artificial-photosynthesis research into a start-up. Dimensional Energy’s CO₂-to-fuel reactors have received U.S. ARPA-E support.

Awards and honours

• **Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), 2011**
• Fellow, Optical Society of America (2012)
• Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers; Fellow, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering; Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering
• DARPA Young Faculty Award (2007), NSF CAREER Award (2009), DOE Early Career Award (2010)

Selected publications

• Erickson D.; Psaltis D.; Sinton D. (2011). “Optofluidics for energy applications”. Nature Photonics 5 (10): 583-590.
• Oncescu V.; Mancuso M.; Erickson D. (2014). “Cholesterol testing on a smartphone”. Lab on a Chip 14 (4): 759-763. doi:10.1039/C3LC51194D
• Chen Y.-F.; Serey X.; Mandal S.; Erickson D. (2011). “Nanomanipulation using near-field photonics”. Lab on a Chip 11 (6): 995-1009.