Dr. Tejal Desai

Posted on Nov 30, 2016 in Featured, Featured Young Leaders, Mosaicque Ezine, October 2016 Edition

tejal-in-the-ucsf-lab

Dr. Tejal Desai is currently Professor of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is also Chair of the UCSF/UC Berkeley Graduate Group in Bioengineering, Director of the UCSF/UC Berkeley Translational Medicine Program (MTM), and a member of the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research. Dr.Tejal Desai directs the Laboratory of Therapeutic Micro and Nanotechnology at UCSF.

Her research uses micro and nanofabrication techniques to create implantable biohybrid devices for cell encapsulation, drug delivery, and templates for cell and tissue regeneration. In addition to
authoring over 150 technical papers and delivering over 150 invited talks, she is the co-editor of an encyclopedia on Therapeutic Microtechnolog and a senior editor of Langmuir and Biomedical
Microdevices.
Desai’s research efforts have earned her numerous awards. She has been cited by Technology Review Magazine as one of the nation’s “Top 100 Young Innovators”, received the Global Indus Technovator Award, and named as Popular Science’s Brilliant 10. Desai’s teaching efforts were recognized when she won the College of Engineering Best Advisor/Teacher Award. She also
won the National Science Foundation’s “New Century Scholar” award and the NSF “CAREER” award, which recognizes teacher-scholars most likely to become the academic leaders of the
21st century.

Her research has also earned her the Visionary Science Award from the International Society of BioMEMS and Nanotechnology, the 2003 and 2006 Eurand Grand Prize Award for innovative drug delivery technology, the 2007 Young Career Award from the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE EMBS) and the UC Berkeley Distinguished Young Alumni award.