Mark G. Allen, PhD
Acting Director, Georgia Electronic Design Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia

Dr. Mark G. Allen received the B.A. degree in Chemistry, the B.S.E. degree in Chemical Engineering, and the B.S.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and the S.M. and Ph.D. (1989) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1989 he joined the faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he currently holds the rank of Regents’ Professor and the J.M. Pettit Professorship in Microelectronics. His current research interest are in the field of microfabrication and nanofabrication technology, with emphasis on new approaches to fabricate devices with characteristic lengths in the micro- to nanoscale from both silicon and non-silicon materials. He has published approximately 100 journal articles (with an h-index of 28) and 200 conference proceedings articles, and holds approximately 40 patents. Professor Allen was the co-chair of the 1996 IEEE/ASME Microelectromechanical Systems Conference, is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, and is a member of the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee for Sponsored Research. He also held the position of Senior Vice Provost for Research and Innovation at Georgia Tech from 2007 to 2010, and in that capacity was charged with overseeing Georgia Tech’s interdisciplinary research centers, managing Georgia Tech’s $500 million sponsored research portfolio, and guiding the commercialization of Georgia Tech research results and intellectual property.

Professor Allen is co-founder of several companies, including CardioMEMS (www.cardiomems.com) and Axion Biosystems (www.axionbio.com). CardioMEMS was founded in 2001 and is commercializing wireless implantable microsensors for treatment of aneurysms and congestive heart failure. CardioMEMS received the 2006 Company of the Year award from Small Times magazine and the 2006 Frost and Sullivan Patient Monitoring Product Innovation of the Year Award, and its wireless pressure monitor was highlighted by the FDA in its annual report as a cleared medical device likely to have a significant impact on patient care. Approximately 6,000 patients have been implanted with its technology. CardioMEMS completed a 550-patient clinical trial for its second product in 2010. Axion Biosystems, founded in 2008, is commercializing microelectrode arrays for in-vitro neural interfacing. It is a revenue-generating company of approximately 15 employees and has just successfully completed a second round of financing for expansion.