Carolyn Ren
Chinese-Canadian microfluidics researcher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carolyn L. Ren is a Chinese-Canadian researcher in microfluidics.[1] She holds a tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Microfluidic Technologies as a professor at the University of Waterloo, in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, where she directs the Waterloo Microfluidics Laboratory.[2] She has also founded multiple spinoff companies to commercialize her research discoveries.[3][1][4]
Education and career
Ren graduated from the Harbin Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in thermal engineering in 1992, and continued at the Harbin Institute of Technology for a master's degree in 1995.[2][5] After working for four years as a lecturer in power engineering at the Dalian University of Technology,[5] she came to Canada for doctoral study in mechanical engineering, completing her Ph.D. in 2004 at the University of Toronto.[2][5]
She joined the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering as an assistant professor in 2004, and was tenured as an associate professor there in 2010.[5] She is also the co-founder of four spinoff companies,[3][4] including Advanced Electrophoresis Solutions Limited, QuantWave Technologies Incorporated,[1] and Air Microfluidics.[4]
Recognition
Ren is a 2004 recipient of the Canada Foundation for Innovation Award, a 2007 recipient of the Early Research Award of the Government of Ontario, and a 2010 recipient of the Engineering Research Excellence Award of the University of Waterloo.[1]
After previously holding a tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Lab-on-Chip Technology,[6] from 2009 to 2014,[5] Ren was given the tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Microfluidic Technologies in 2022.[7]
Ren was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering in 2012.[5] She was named to the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada in 2018,[6] elected to the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2023,[8] and to the Engineering Institute of Canada in 2024.[3]