Robert Kennedy

Meet Robert Kennedy

Instrument you couldn’t live without? It is not an instrument exactly, but we have cleanroom for fabricated microfluidic devices. Life was exceedingly difficult before that. Now we can make designs rapidly in glass or PDMS based on designs developed the day before. The cleanroom yields high success rates. It makes me much happier.

Heroes? In the past, when I answer this question, I have emphasized Ralph Adams, a pioneering bioanalytical chemist, and my mentors Mark Wightman and Jim Jorgenson. I’d like to add Isiah Warner to my hero list. Isiah overcame much to become one of the most accomplished analytical chemists ever. Further, he used his stature to assist other African-American students to succeed as scientists. He is an inspiration in many ways.