Professor Yu Sun (MIE) has been elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), which honours academic inventors for creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
Sun is an internationally recognized micro- and nano-technologist, and a leader in developing robotic and automation technologies for manipulating and characterizing cells, molecules, and nanomaterials.
Among the first to invent robotic approaches for automated cell manipulation, his work has resulted in breakthroughs in clinical cell surgery, cellular and intracellular measurement, and nanomanufacturing. He holds 13 patents.
Sun and his group developed the first robotic cell surgery system for human intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). It was recently tested in patient trials and resulted in the world’s first ‘robotically’ created human fertilization.
This technology has the potential to revolutionize human fertility treatments, bringing greater reliability to these expensive and difficult procedures. Sun’s group has also developed the world’s first closed-loop nanorobotic system for operation inside electron microscopes, which has been licensed to Hitachi Inc.
Sun holds the Canada Research Chair in Micro and Nanoengineering Systems at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). His many awards include the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career Award, the NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship and the IEEE C.C. Gotlieb Computer Award.
“Professor Yu Sun has taken his innovative and pioneering research beyond the lab, creating cutting-edge technologies which are revolutionizing both clinical engineering procedures and industrial practice,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “He is most deserving of this prestigious honour and we are grateful to the NAI for recognizing his exceptional contributions.”
