Charles Henry, PhD

Much of my lab resources are focused on taking traditional laboratory instrumentation and miniaturizing it, so that we can take it out the laboratory and into the field, or do things with systems that you can’t do using traditional approaches.

The biggest challenge in the sensor field is that it is moving forward very quickly. There’s a big push right now to think about big data, but you have to have the data to start with. We develop ways to generate the data that people are trying to use.

“Initially, I was more interested in the fundamental side of research, and while I remain interested in that, the realization was that the basic sciences can contribute to significant advances.  Solving problems is really what drew me to application-driven work. Being able to look at a problem and say “What’s the fundamental limitation that is preventing us from solving that problem –  now let’s go back to the basic science and work on solving the problem from there.” That’s the motivating factor for why I take on applied research.

I also believe we [Universities] have a commitment to the public beyond the educational piece. We are responsible to translate products to the people who are paying the taxes and support the work.

My research world is platform development; most of the time you have to get the platform far enough along before someone will take it. There is a gap that exists where federal funding stops and where I need to get to with the platform before companies will take it and run.”

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