Biography: Robert Grass

Robert N. Grass (1979) is lecturer in the group of Prof. Stark at ETH Zurich. He studied Chemical Engineering at ETH with a stay at CASE Western Reserve University Cleveland in 2003 after which he pursued a PhD at ETH Zurich.

He has written over 100 research papers, 8 patents and three book chapters. Based on results of his research he founded the company TurboBeads LLC in 2007, which makes chemically functionalized magnetic materials commercially available (e.g. via Sigma Aldrich). His research is at the interface of nanoparticles, surfaces and biochemistry; he pioneered the use of carbon coated metallic nanoparticles for separation and has more recently shifted his research interest from aerosol based synthesis processes to bio-analytical applications of functionalized particles. A current focus is on using encapsulated DNA as an information carrier in digital information storage, product barcoding and material labeling.