Purdue prof wins IEEE early achievement award

Allen Garner  (Purdue University photo) Download Photo

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Allen Garner, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at Purdue University, has received a 2016 NPSS Early Achievement Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society.

The award recognizes the outstanding achievements of researchers in the fields of nuclear and plasma sciences within the first 10 years of their career.

Garner specializes in multidisciplinary biomedical research involving the use of electric fields and plasmas to modify cells for potential applications ranging from food preservation to drug delivery.

Plasma might be harnessed to sterilize foods and retard spoilage. Other research focuses on the use of electric fields, for example, to rehabilitate patients suffering from spinal cord injury.

Before joining Purdue in 2012, Garner was an electromagnetic physicist at GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna, New York. From 1997 to 2003, he was an active duty Naval officer, serving onboard the USS Pasadena, a nuclear-powered submarine. He currently serves as a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves.

Garner is a co-inventor on a 2014 patent with other researchers from GE for a new method that uses lasers to deliver molecules into biological cells. The laser creates electric fields and temperature changes at the cell membranes, making it possible to transport molecules into normally impermeable cells. This approach can have long-term applications in gene therapy, cell therapy, and personalized medicine.

He received a bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering in 1996 from the University of Illinois, a master's degree in nuclear engineering in 1997 from the University of Michigan, another master's degree in electrical engineering from Old Dominion University in 2003 and a doctorate in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan in 2006. 

Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu           

Source:  Allen Garner, 765-494-0618, algarner@purdue.edu