David A. Weitz (born October 3, 1951) is a Canadian/American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics & Applied Physics at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He is the former co-director of the BASF Advanced Research Initiative at Harvard, former co-director of the Harvard Kavli Institute for Bionano Science & Technology (2007-2010), and former director of the Harvard Materials Research Science & Engineering Center (2001-2020). He is known for his work in the areas of

diffusing-wave spectroscopy Diffusing-wave spectroscopy (DWS) is an optical technique derived from dynamic light scattering (DLS) that studies the dynamics of scattered light in the limit of strong multiple scattering. It has been widely used in the past to study colloidal sus ...

, microrheology, microfluidics,

rheology Rheology (; ) is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in a fluid ( liquid or gas) state, but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an appl ...

fluid mechanics Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids ( liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them. It has applications in a wide range of disciplines, including mechanical, aerospace, civil, chemical and bio ...

, interface and colloid science,

colloid chemistry A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others extend ...

, biophysics, complex fluids, soft condensed matter physics, phase transitions, the study of

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

and amorphous solids, liquid crystals, self-assembly, surface-enhanced light scattering, and

diffusion-limited aggregation Diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) is the process whereby particles undergoing a random walk due to Brownian motion cluster together to form aggregates of such particles. This theory, proposed by T.A. Witten Jr. and L.M. Sander in 1981, is app ...

. His laboratory also developed

Force spectrum microscopy Force Spectrum Microscopy (FSM) is an application of active microrheology developed to measure aggregate random forces in the cytoplasm. Large, inert flow tracers are injected into live cells and become lodged inside the cytoskeletal mesh, wherein i ...

, which is capable of measuring random intracellular forces. As of June 2023, he has a

Hirsch index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 202. Weitz received his B.Sc. in physics from the University of Waterloo and his PhD in

superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...

from Harvard. He then worked as a research physicist at Exxon Research and Engineering for nearly 18 years, leading the Interfaces and Inhomogeneous Materials Group and Complex Fluids Area. He then became a Professor of Physics at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, before moving to Harvard in 1999. In 2016, Weitz was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for "discoveries of complex fluids, colloids, and emulsions, which have resulted in new products and companies". Weitz is also an elected member of the

National Academy of Science The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Weitz is an active entrepreneur and the founder of many companies, including the microfluidics company RainDance and a desktop DNA sequencer, GnuBio, which was acquired by Biorad.

References

External links

Experimental Soft Condensed Matter Group HomepageHarvard Physics Department ListingWeitz profile page, Wyss Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weitz, David 1951 births 21st-century American physicists Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Living people

See also

References

External links