Avinash Manjula-Basavanna is a Senior Research Scientist (PI status) in the Department
of Bioengineering, Northeastern University, Boston, USA. He is also a Visiting Scientist
in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech. He was a Wyss
Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University and a Visiting Scholar at MIT. He has
made pioneering contributions to the emerging field of Engineered Living Materials (ELM),
and his research expertise and interests are at the interface of Synthetic Biology,
Materials Engineering, Biomaterials, Biomanufacturing, Artificial Intelligence,
Nanotechnology, Protein Engineering, Additive Manufacturing, Sustainability,
Bioelectronics and Nature-Inspired Engineering.
He was the Grand Prize Winner of NSF’s Big Idea competition, recipient of MIT
Technology Review’s Top 35 Innovators Under 35, STAT Wunderkind Award and
Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award. He has the rare distinction of being
one of the invited speakers in World Laureates Summit and DARPA’s Microsystems
Exploratory Council (MEC) Workshop. He was also selected for Harvard Innovation Lab’s
Venture Incubation Program, MIT Engine’s Blueprint program for the Tough Tech
Founders and the Innovation Scholars In-Residence Program by the President of India.
He has served as a grant reviewer for several funding agencies, namely, NSF (USA),
FWO (Belgium) and Helmholtz (Germany). He has served as Guest Editor for Springer
Nature’s NPJ Flexible Electronics, Frontiers in Bioengineering & Biotechnology, Frontiers
in Chemistry and Journal of Visualized Experiments. His research work has been
highlighted in 60+ global media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington
Post, CNN and Smithsonian Magazine.