​Dr. Chad A. Mirkin is the Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University. He is a chemist and a world-renowned nanoscience expert, who has authored over 700 papers; he is an inventor on over 1,000 patents and applications worldwide (over 300 issued). Mirkin has been recognized for his accomplishments with over 120 national and international awards. These include the RUSNANOPRIZE, the Dan David Prize, the Wilhelm Exner Medal, the Sackler Prize in Convergence Research, the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, and the ACS Award for Creative Invention.  He was a Member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST, Obama Administration), and one of fewer than 20 scientists, engineers, and medical doctors to be elected to all three US National Academies (National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Engineering).  He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Materials Research Society, the American Chemical Society, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He is the Founding Editor of the journal Small, and he has founded multiple companies, including AuraSense, Exicure, TERA-print, and CDJ Technologies. Mirkin holds a B.S. degree from Dickinson College and a Ph.D. degree from Penn State. He was an NSF Postdoc at MIT prior to becoming a Professor at Northwestern in 1991.