Ben Yellen received his B.A. from Emory University in Chemistry and is expected to graduate with his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Drexel University this August. His specialty area is magnetic nanotechnology. He has accepted a Post-Doctoral appointment under a competitive NIH training grant at the Children Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP), Cardiology Department, where he will work under the direction of Dr. Robert Levy on problems of magnetically targeted delivery of drugs.

During his 3 year PhD study, Ben has published 12 refereed journal articles, presented his work at many international, national and local conferences and won a number of awards for his research. His first award was the highly competitive National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship for graduate studies. Ben’s PhD dissertation is on magnetically driven assembly of nanoparticles. He developed a technique by which information magnetically recorded on a substrate is used to guide assembly of tiny particles into highly organized structures that can later be used for photonics, biosensors and many other important applications. He was a finalist for the Materials Research Society student award and won the “Silver” award for the recent presentation of his work at the 2004 MRS meeting in San Francisco. Using his PhD work as a basis, Ben submitted NSF a successful proposal for collaborative work with Asian scientists (NSF EAPSI program) which was recently awarded. Drexel University is in the process of filing two patents based on Ben’s PhD work.

Ben is a remarkably energetic and creative person. He actively seeks out new applications and ideas. While at Drexel, Ben developed contacts with the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, Drexel College of Medicine. This team demonstrated that his magnetic assembly techniques can be used to assemble arrays of living cells. Ben was also instrumental in developing a novel method of magnetically targeted drug delivery system for applications such as treatment of arterial restenosis where magnetically patterned stents are used to attract magnetic drug carrying nanoparticles to prevent re-closing of arteries. Ben and his co-worker submitted a patent application which Drexel University is currently filing. Additionally they developed a business plan that won 1st place in the Baida Business Plan Competition ($15,000!). Ben was also asked to present an invited paper based on this work at the INTERMAG-2003 Conference in Boston. In his Post-Doctoral work Ben will continue to develop this magnetically targeted drug delivery technique further. Ben’s work was cites at MIT Research Review and he is one of the 9 top finalists for the R&D 100 2005 Awards!

Ben is a truly well rounded individual who shows great commitment to help others. After his graduation from Emory University, he spent a year in China teaching students to speak English. In the process Ben learned to speak Chinese fluently. While at Drexel, Ben wanted to learn to write proposals better. He realized that other graduate students and faculty might have similar interests. He contacted NSF to come to Drexel to make presentations to students and faculty on how to write successful proposals. Ben also took it upon himself to help undergraduate student to get started in research. During his time at Drexel he helped mentor two such undergraduates.

Ben’s zeal for his work and life is contagious. He is an outstanding scholar and a role model who truly deserves to be called a rising star!
 

Last Modified: Tuesday April 1, 2005