Yee Fellowship winner focuses on photonics

 

Kewen Han, doctoral candidate in MechSE, was named the Yee Fellow by the College of Engineering for 2016-2017.

 

The Yee Memorial Fellowship is a yearlong program for engineering students who are Chinese nationals. The award includes a stipend over two semesters.

 

Han works with Assistant Professor Gaurav Bahl’s research group, and said he is hoping to complete his doctoral degree by the end of 2017. 

 

His work focuses mainly on the field of photonics and his research involves experimental and theoretical analysis of opto-mechano-fluidic resonators (OMFR). This lets him develop highly sensitive sensors for gases, fluids, particles, and bioanalytes using only remote optical interfaces. 

 

In some of his recent work, Han said he may have found a way to revolutionize the throughput and capability of biosensors that can measure the mechanical property changes in cells, such as deformability and viscoelasticity, due to diseases like cancer and conditions such as anemia. 

 

“In my recent study, I demonstrate a fundamentally new label-free high-throughput method for optically measuring the mechanical properties of rapidly flowing particles using the OMFR platform,” Han said.

 

Han attended Shanghai Jiao Tong University for his first two years of undergraduate work before attending Purdue University. He has degrees in mechanical engineering from both schools. He earned his MSME degree at Illinois in 2014.

 

Moving forward, Han said he wants to pursue a challenging career in the field of photonics. 

 

“Being able to design and develop new types of sensors and actually make them work interests me the most about my research,” Han said. 

 

The Yee Fellowship was made possible by Drs. Warren and Ming Ting Yee. Dr. Warren Yee received his PhD in civil engineering from Illinois in 1943, and founded Bio-Tech Research Laboratory, Inc. in Washington, D.C. He was known for thinking of others, especially relatives in China, before himself.