Assistant Professor Ian White

Affiliate, Institute for Systems Research
Affiliate, Chemical Physics Program
Affiliate, Maryland Pathogen Research Institute
Member, Maryland Nanocenter
Ph.D., Stanford University, 2002
Room 2216 Kim Engineering Building
E-mail: ianwhite@umd.edu
Web Site: terpconnect.umd.edu/~ianwhite
Phone: (301) 405-6230
Fax: (301) 405-9953

Research Interests

Disease detection, optical biosensors, ring resonators, SERS, lab-on-a-chip.

Current Research

Our research group develops integrated microsystems for the diagnosis and study of disease at the cellular and molecular level. Using a combination of microfabrication techniques, we are implementing micro total analysis systems (uTAS) for three major research thrusts.

1. Infectious disease detection. Using novel techniques, we aim to implement a uTAS that concentrates pathogens from large volume samples, recovers nucleic acids, and quantifies pathogens in the sample based on DNA signature biosensing.
2. Understanding cancer metastasis. We are developing a new on-chip assay to identify and enrich highly tumorigenic cells using techniques in microfabrication, chemistry, and cancer biology.
3. Point-of-sample chemical/biomolecule detection. We have developed novel 3D optofluidic surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) scaffolds in uTAS devices to enable low-cost portable detection of chemicals and biomolecules, including pesticides, explosives, and industrial toxins.

Selected Refereed Publications

I. M. White and X. Fan, "On the performance quantification of resonant refractive index sensors," Optics Express 16, 1020-1028 (2008).

I. M. White, J. Gohring, and X. Fan, "SERS-based detection in an optofluidic ring resonator platform," Optics Express 15, 17433-17442 (2007).

I. M. White, J. Gohring, Y. Sun, G. Yang, S. Lacey, and X. Fan, "Versatile waveguide-coupled opto-fluidic devices based on liquid core optical ring resonators," Applied Physics Letters 94, 241104 (2007).

I. M. White, J. D. Suter, H. Oveys, X. Fan, T. L. Smith, J. Zhang, B. J. Koch, and M. A. Haase, "Universal coupling between metal-clad waveguides and optical ring resonators," Optics Express 15, 646-651 (2007).

I. M. White, H. Zhu, J. D. Suter, N. M. Hanumegowda, H. Oveys, M. Zourob, and X. Fan, "Refractometric Sensors for Lab-on-a-Chip Based on Optical Ring Resonators," IEEE Sensors Journal 7, 28-35 (2007).

I. M. White, H. Oveys, X. Fan, T. L. Smith, and J. Zhang, "Integrated Multiplexed Biosensors Based on Liquid Core Optical Ring Resonators and Anti-Resonant Reflecting Optical Waveguide," Applied Physics Letters 89, 191106 (2006).

I. M. White, H. Oveys, and X. Fan, "Increasing the enhancement of SERS with dielectric microsphere resonators," April 1 issue of Spectroscopy (2006).

I. M. White, H. Oveys, and X. Fan, "Liquid Core Optical Ring Resonator Sensors," Optics Letters 31, 1319-1321 (2006).