Dr. Michael
J. Cima is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT.
He earned a B.S. in chemistry in 1982 (phi beta kappa) and a Ph.D.
in chemical engineering in 1986, both from the University of California
at Berkeley. He received the Norton chair at MIT in 1988 in the
Materials Science and Engineering Department as an Assistant Professor.
Prof. Cima became Director of the Ceramics Processing Research Laboratory
in 1989 and received a tenured appointment from MIT in 1992. He
was promoted to full Professor in 1995. He was elected a Fellow
of the American Ceramics Society in 1997 and has recently been awarded
the Sumitomo Electric Industries Chair at MIT. Prof. Cima is author
or co-author of over one hundred and sixty scientific publications,
twenty patents, and is a recognized expert in the field of materials
processing. He has been the principle investigator on several large
defense research projects and many other sponsored research programs
at MIT. Prof. Cima's recent research is primarily in four areas:
advanced forming technology, ceramic thin film processing, MEMS
devices for medical electronics and drug delivery, high-throughput
development methods for formulations of materials. Forming methods
for complex macro and micro devices are of particular interest including
MIT's three-dimensional printing process. His research group is
one of the leaders in the development of chemically derived epitaxial
oxide films for HTSC coated conductors. They are also leaders in
the field of particle-particle and particle-surface interactions.
He and collaborators are developing implantable MEMS devices for
unprecedented control in the delivery of pharmaceuticals. Most recently,
his group has been working on methods to speed the development of
materials systems that are based on complex formulations. Finally,
through his consulting work he has been a major contributor to the
development of a high throughput system for discovery of novel crystal
forms of pharmaceuticals.