A Turkish scientist has been named one the world’s “Brilliant 10” scientists in 2012 by Popular Science, a US magazine covering the latest developments in science and technology.
Özcan has also developed a Google Maps interface to geographically plot test results obtained by his cell phone microscopes, an advance that could be used to track the spread of various infectious diseases around the globe, the magazine said in its press statement.
Costing $10, the device can be connected to smartphones and eliminates the need for expensive devices and long diagnostic processes. Instead, diseases can be detected anywhere in a short period of time and at less cost and results can be easily uploaded into databases of medical centers. This accelerates the diagnostic process.
Özcan and his research group won The Scientist’s Top Innovation of 2011. Özcan and his group were recognized by The Scientist magazine for their project, Lenseless, Ultra-wide-field Cell monitoring Array platform based on Shadowimaging (LUCAS). LUCAS, hailed as “an exciting new technology that showcases ingenuity away from preconceived ideas,” is a microscope with cell phone connectivity, and costs less than $10, making scientific research and cutting-edge health technology more accessible to all members of the global community, the newsroom of the university stated.
UCLA’s Newsroom noted that Özcan, who joined UCLA’s faculty in 2007, has received several distinguished honors for his research, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Early Career Achievement awards from the SPIE and the IEEE Photonics Society, Investigator awards from the Army Research Office and the Office of Naval Research, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award, and a National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award. (TodaysZaman)
