OBJECTIVES: I endeavor to further my understanding of biomedical engineering for applications in research and to gain practical experience for career development.  My goals include working with cutting edge BioMEMS technologies in either industry or in academia.  I have an interest in entrepreneurship and hope to build my own company in the future.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering – Expected graduation -  Fall 2009 – Winter 2010
            University of California – Irvine, CA
            Advanced to candidacy - Summer 2007

• M.S. in Biomedical Engineering – Spring 2006
            University of California – Irvine, CA

• B.S. in Engineering Physics – April 2004
            University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA
            Graduated cum laude, 2nd   in class
            Engineering Scholarship

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

• Jan 2007 and Ongoing, Microfluidic CD system for point-of-care diagnosis of GBS, Professor Marc Madou, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – UCI. Working on a CD platform for the rapid detection of low sample GBS in clinical settings. Involved in development and integration of cell lysis, DNA purification and concentration, amplification and fluorescent detection. Supported by the NIH in a collaboration spearheaded by Dr. Bergeron’s Infectious Disease Research Center (IDRC) and the Centre de Recherché en Infectiologie (CRI) at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec (CHUQ).

• Jan 2008 and Ongoing, µTAS CD system for influenza detection, Professor Marc Madou, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – UCI.  Working to develop a PCR based sample-to-answer detection CD assay for multiple pathogens dealing with influenza.  Involved in prototyping the CD PCR and microarray technology.  Supported by Genome Canada in a collaboration spearheaded by Dr. Bergeron’s Infectious Disease Research Center (IDRC).

• Jan 2007 and Ongoing, Novel Dielectrophoresis system on a CD platform, Professor Marc Madou, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – UCI collaboration with Rodrigo Martinez-Duarte, MAE - UCI. Working on a CD platform integrating 3D carbon MEMS dielectrophoresis chips for manipulation of biological particles.  Applications include sample preparation for diagnosis and therapeutics.  

• Sept 2007 to December 2007, Protein adhesion and cell growth on Carbon MEMS and Diamond-like Nanocomposites, IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal, India.  Worked on characterizing biology on a variety of carbon substrates for use in biomedical applications.  Examined how surface chemistry affected protein adhesion and altered cell growth.  Collaboration with T.K. Maiti and T. K. Bhattacharyya from IIT Kharagpur.

• March 2006 to Sept 2007,  Neural CMEMS - Professor Marc Madou, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering- UCI. Worked on culturing neurons on CMEMS substrates to create electrode platforms to study dynamic neural networks. Additional work was done on the CD platform to investigate applications for stressed neurite growth.

• September 2005 to March 2006, Neural Microfluidics, Professor Noo Li Jeon, Biomedical Engineering - UCI. Worked on a soft photolithography setup in the lab to make microfluidic devices for BioMEMS applications, additionally investigated creating and testing electrode based microfluidic devices for neuronal applications.

ACADEMIA EXPERIENCE

• Winter 2008, Teaching Assistant, TA for Biomechanics BME 146 BIOMEMS/ENGRMAE Mini Biotechnology 253 under Professor Marc Madou – UCI.

• Fall 2007, Research Abroad. First BME student and third student overall to participate in the NSF funded INDO-US exchange program to IIT Kharagpur in West Bengal, India.  Worked on applying biological samples to CMEMS and DLN technology with Professor T. K. Bhattacharyya and CD modeling with Professor Suman Chakraborty.

• Summer 2007 to Fall 2008, Student/Faculty Representative, graduate student rep to faculty meetings.

• Summer 2005 and Ongoing, BioMEMS Cleanroom / BION Labs Setup, Lead graduate student in charge of setting up BioMEMS rooms class 1000 cleanroom in Cal-IT2 at UCI. Involved in design layout, budgeting, equipment research and purchase, vendor orientation, installation and creation of operation procedures.  Responsible for coordination of building engineering, EH&S, and faculty.  Opened to users in the fall of 2007.  Additionally involved in the creation of the Biological Organic and Nano Processes (BION) facility expected to fully open late in 2008.

• Fall 2006, Teaching Assistant, TA for Biomechanics BME 110A under Professor Ali Mirnajafi – UCI.

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

• Oct 2008 and Ongoing, Researcher – Endometrics, CA.  Working on novel long-term electrochemical blood gas sensing devices for intensive care units.

• Jan 2009 and March 2009, Researcher – Phasiks, CA.  Worked on development of thermo-electric devices as a platform for sample preparation in clinical applications.  

• March 2007 to August 2007, Researcher – SubQ LLC, CA.  Worked to design and fabricate fiber optic micro-connectors for a novel glucose sensing system.  Responsible for development and optimization of connectors and operating equipment.

• November 2004 to August 2005, Contract Biochemist – Merck and Co., Inc. West Point, PA. Assisted the Automated Biotechnology Department in carrying out high throughput screening (HTS) of its compound libraries.  My responsibilities included reformatting compounds from low to high density format; creating multiple replicates of the compound library in high-density format for miniaturized assays; programming and operating laboratory automation systems and various IT activities.

PUBLICATIONS

• Teixidor, GT, Gorkin, RA, Tripathi, PP, et al. (2008). “Carbon microelectromechanical systems as a substratum for cell growth” Biomedical Materials, 3(3), 034116-.
• D. Chakraborty, R. A. Gorkin, L. Kulinsky, M. Madou, S. Chakraborty.  “Capillary Filling in Centrifugally Actuated Microfluidic Devices with Dynamically Evolving Contact Line Motion” Journal of Applied Physics – submitted March 2009
• J. Siegrist and R. Gorkin, L. Clime, E. Roy, R. Reytavi, M. Bergeron, T. Veres, M. Madou    “Serial Siphon Valving for Centrifugal Microfluidic Platforms” Lab on a Chip – submitted June 2009
• J. Siegrist and R. Gorkin, M. Bastien, G. Stewart, R. Reytavi, H. Kido, M. Bergeron, M. Madou    “Centrifugal Microfluidic Sample Lysis and Homogenization Platform For Nucleic Acid Extraction Validated Using Clinical Samples” Lab on a Chip – submitted July 2009 

• Upcoming Publications
•  “Novel Pumping Mechanisms on a Centrifugal Disk Platform” – R. A. Gorkin, M. Madou, H. Kido
• "Micromixing in Centrifugal Platform" - D. Chakraborty, S.Chakraborty, R. A. Gorkin, M. J. Madou

CONFERENCES / PRESENTATIONS

• Fabrionics 2009 Indo-US Forum Irvine, CA Microfluidics Laboratory at IIT Kharagpur. D. Chakraborty, R. Gorkin, S. Chakraborty, M. Madou (IIT Kharagpur and UC Irvine), Poster Presentation, June 2009.
• Fabrionics 2009 Indo-US Forum Irvine, CA “Carbon-MEMS as a substratum for cell growth” G. Turon Teixidor, R. Gorkin, P. Tripathi, G. Bisht, M. Kulkarni, TK Maiti, TK Battacharyya, J. Subramaniam, A. Sharma, B. Park, M. Madou (UC Irvine, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur), Poster Presentation, June 2009.
• Fabrionics 2009 Indo-US Forum Irvine, CA Biological Interactions of Diamond-like Nanocomposite Thin Films for applications in Biomedical Devices.   G. Bisht, R. Gorkin, T.K. Bhattacharyya, T.K. Maiti, M. Madou (UC Irvine, IIT Kharagpur), Poster Presentation, June 2009.
• R. Martinez-Duarte, R. Gorkin, K. Abi-Samra and M. J. Madou, "The Integration of 3D carbon Dielectrophoresis on a rotating platform" Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators & Microsystems, Transducers 2009: Denver, CO, June 21-25, 2009, 2147-2150 (2009).
• LifeChips 2009 Symposium Irvine, CA “The Microfluidic Compact Disk (CD) as an Advanced Diagnostic Platform” R. Gorkin, Oral Presentation, Jan 2009.
• Indo-US Center for Excellence in Fabrionics Forum Board Meeting IIT Kanpur, India  “Carbon-MEMS as a substratum for cell growth” G. Teixidor, R. Gorkin, P. Tripathi, G. Bisht, M. Kulkarni, J. Subramaniam, A. Sharma, M. Madou, Poster Presentation, Dec 2008.
• Indo-US Center for Excellence in Fabrionics Forum Board Meeting IIT Kanpur, India  “Activities at IIT Kharagpur under the Indo-US Joint Center on Fabrionics”, Poster Presentation, Dec 2008.
• Darpa MF3 MEMS / NEMS S&T Fundamentals All Center Review Meeting “Solid Phase DNA Extraction using Column on a Disk”, Poster Presentation, Summer 2007.

• Upcoming Conferences
• R. Martinez-Duarte, R. Gorkin, K. Abi-Samra, M. Madou, “The Integration of Dielectrophoresis on a CD-like Microfluidics Platform” 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Electrophoresis Society: Nashville, TN November 8-13, 2009.
• µTAS 2009 Jeju, Korea “Centrifugal Microfluidic Sample Lysis and Homogenization Platform for Nucleic Acid Extraction” Poster Presentation, Nov 2009.

AWARDS

• DIAMAS – Co-founder of entrepreneurial startup based on Diamond-like Nanocomposite (DLN) coating technology pioneered at IIT Kharagpur, India.  
• 2009 - 2nd place finish at the UCI Merage School of Business – Business Plan Competition
• 2008 - Rice International Business Plan Competition -  featured in CNNMoney.com and FortuneSmallBusiness.com

                (http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0804/gallery.rice_b_plan_competition_08.fsb/16.html)

• 2008 - Finalist in international business plan competitions in India, US, and abroad
• BITS Pilani, India; MIT Executive Summary MIT, US; ASIA MOOT Business Competition Bangkok, Thailand
• UC Irvine Graduate Student Research and Travel Grant – 2009
• UC Irvine Biomedical Engineering Graduate Transition Fellowship – 2005

GRADUATE SOCIETIES

• 2008-Present, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) – Founder and current President


• 2005-Present, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) – current Vice President

UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE

• June 2003 to August 2004, Senior Thesis “Micro-Patterning Arrays of Neurons and Glial Cells” – Investigated growing micron-sized patterns of neurons and glial cells using documented and innovative techniques. Involved in microfabrication and cell culturing experiments. Advisor – Professor Xiao-Lun Wu, Physics and Astronomy.

• June 2003 to April 2004, Quantum Spin Research. Worked under Professor Jeremy Levy, Physics and Astronomy, Director of the Center for Oxide-Semiconductor Materials for Quantum Computation (COSMQC), Lab reorganization, created search engine for all lab equipment and materials, worked on a frequency locking box for investigation of quantum spins.

• Fall 2000, Study Abroad Experience. Received Provost’s Scholarship Participated in study abroad with the University of Newcastle in Newcastle, Australia. Classes included Materials Science, Physics, and Humanities.

MANUFACTURING /  MICROFABRICATION SKILLS
Metal/Plastic machining                    Photolithography                         Oxygen Plasma
CNC machining                                Soft Lithography                          E-beam Deposition
CD fabrication                                  Micro-Stamping
Fiberglass Production and Fiberglass Technology – Certificates from Cerritos College 2008

COMPUTER PROGRAMING /  SOFTWARE SKILLS
Solidworks, FeatureCAM, AutoCAD, MatLab, Labview, VB, SignGo, IsoPro, Adobe, MS Office

RELATED COURSES
Graduate
Advanced Mathematics for Engineers, Numerical Methods and Analysis, Quantitative Physiology – Sensory Motor Systems and Organ Transport Systems, Cell and Tissue Engineering, BioMEMS, Micro-Implants, Cellular Biotechnology at the Micro and Nano-Scale, Systems Neuroscience, Molecular Neuroscience, Fundamentals of Microfabrication