The Ramsey Rese J. Michael, Mike, Ramsey is the Minnie N. Goldby Distinguished
forts included counting single molecules in solution, non-linear
Professor of Chemistry, a faculty member of the Department
spectroscopy for elemental isotopic analysis, and the use of
of Applied Physical Sciences, and the joint UNC-Chapel Hill &
photorefractive elements in laser resonators to augment their
NCSU Department of Biomedical Engineering. He joined Car-
performance. In the late 1980s he became interested in micro-
olina Chemistry in 2004 as an internationally known analytical
machining fluidic circuits to perform chemical and biochemi-
chemist, most notably for his efforts in microfluidics. Ramsey
cal experiments. His first efforts were to implement capillary
is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fel-
electrophoresis, CE, experiments on these microfabricated
low of the Optical Society of America, the American Chemical
structures and demonstrated speed advantages of >100x over
Society, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological
conventional instruments while maintaining separative perfor-
Engineering, and has garnered a list of awards too numerous
mance, thus more information per unit time. Ramsey’s foray
to list here. He has focused much of his career on developing technological solutions to important chemical and biological measurement problems and translating his solutions into commercial products that other laboratories can utilize for their research to advance scientific understanding. Mike started his career at Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
“It is the generation of patent portfolios around our technologies that enable their translation as products to society and I view it as a return to the tax payers who support our research...”
ORNL, as a Eugene P. Wigner postdoctoral fellow developing laser-based chemical measurement tools and was then steadi-
into microfluidics led to what became early seminal patents in
ly promoted through the scientific ranks to reach the highest
the field and were the basis for his first company, Caliper Life
level of Corporate Research Fellow. His ORNL group’s early ef-
Sciences; acquired by PerkinElmer in 2011. The products based
16 | CHEMISTRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
| CHEM.UNC.EDU
