About

George M. Whitesides, born August 3, 1939, in Louisville, KY, is a distinguished chemist and professor at Harvard University. He received his A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1960 and completed his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology in 1964 under the guidance of J.D. Roberts. Whitesides was a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1982 before joining Harvard's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in 1982. He served as Department Chairman from 1986 to 1989 and held the position of Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry from 1982 to 2004. Currently, he is the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor. His research areas include analytical chemistry, energy, related inorganic materials, origins of life, physical and chemical physics. Whitesides has made significant contributions to the field of chemistry through his research and leadership, and he is recognized as a prominent figure in the scientific community.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Nanotechnology
• Materials science
• Engineering
• Chemistry
• Geometry
• Crystallography
• Environmental chemistry
• Data science
• Biochemical engineering
• Control engineering
• Organic chemistry
• Embedded system
• Quantum mechanics
• Physics
• Aerospace engineering
• Mechanics
• Optoelectronics
• Mechanical engineering
• Mathematics
• Engineering ethics

Selected publications

• Point-of-need diagnostics in a post-Covid world: an opportunity for paper-based microfluidics to serve during syndemics

  Lab on a Chip · 2025-01-01 · 13 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Zoonotic outbreaks present with unpredictable threats to human health, food production, biodiversity, national security and disrupt the global economy. The COVID-19 pandemic-caused by zoonotic coronavirus, SARS-CoV2- is the most recent upsurge of an increasing trend in outbreaks for the past 100 years. This year, emergence of avian influenza (H5N1) is a stark reminder of the need for national and international pandemic preparedness. Tools for threat reduction include consistent practices in reporting pandemics, and widespread availability of accurate detection technologies. Wars and extreme climate events redouble the need for fast, adaptable and affordable diagnostics at the point of need. During the recent pandemic, rapid home tests for SARS-CoV-2 proved to be a viable functional model that leverages simplicity. In this perspective, we introduce the concept of syndemnicity in the context of infectious diseases and point-of-need healthcare diagnostics. We also provide a brief state-of-the-art for paper-based microfluidics. We illustrate our arguments with a case study for detecting brucellosis in cows. Finally, we conclude with lessons learned, challenges and opportunities for paper-based microfluidics to serve point-of-need healthcare diagnostics during syndemics.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Author response for "Point-of-need diagnostics in a post-Covid world: an opportunity for paper-based microfluidics to serve during syndemics"

  2024-11-04

  peer-reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Mimicking lightning-induced electrochemistry on the early Earth

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2024-07-29 · 24 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  To test the hypothesis that an abiotic Earth and its inert atmosphere could form chemically reactive carbon- and nitrogen-containing compounds, we designed a plasma electrochemical setup to mimic lightning-induced electrochemistry under steady-state conditions of the early Earth. Air-gap electrochemical reactions at air-water-ground interfaces lead to remarkable yields, with up to 40 moles of carbon dioxide being reduced into carbon monoxide and formic acid, and 3 moles of gaseous nitrogen being fixed into nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium ions, per mole of transmitted electrons. Interfaces enable reactants (e.g., minerals) that may have been on land, in lakes, and in oceans to participate in radical and redox reactions, leading to higher yields compared to gas-phase-only reactions. Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes could have generated high concentrations of reactive molecules locally, establishing diverse feedstocks for early life to emerge and survive globally.

  PublisherDOI

• Author response for "Point-of-need diagnostics in a post-Covid world: an opportunity for paper-based microfluidics to serve during syndemics"

  2024-12-12

  peer-reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• AstroAccess: Testing accessibility accommodations for disabled and mixed-ability crews operating in space-like environments

  Acta Astronautica · 2024-02-10 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Kinetics of formation of a macroscale binary Coulombic material

  Physical Review Materials · 2023-04-13 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  This paper describes the formation kinetics of a two-dimensional, binary Coulombic material. The material is formed by mechanically agitating millimeter-sized nylon and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) beads that tribocharge positively and negatively, respectively. The authors alter the relative number of nylon and PTFE beads, without changing their combined total. They discover a common transient structure that does not depend on the relative ratio of nylon and PTFE beads, reveal a structure transition driven by the minimization of Coulombic energy, and provide insights for the rational design of materials.

  PublisherDOI

• Melting of a macroscale binary Coulombic crystal

  Soft Matter · 2023-01-01 · 7 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The question of melting has been addressed theoretically and experimentally for two-dimensional crystals in thermal equilibrium. However, as it pertains to out-of-equilibrium systems, the question is unresolved. Here, we present a platform to study the melting of a two-dimensional, binary Coulombic crystal composed of equal numbers of nylon and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) beads that measure a couple of millimeters in diameter. The beads are tribocharged-nylon positively and PTFE negatively-and they experience long-range electrostatic interactions. They form a square crystal in which nylon and PTFE beads sit at alternating sites on a checkerboard lattice. We melt the crystal by agitating the dish in which it resides using an orbital shaker. We compare the melting behavior of the crystal without impurities to that of the crystal with impurities, where we use gold-coated nylon beads as impurities because they tribocharge negligibly. Our results reveal that impurities do not influence the melting of the crystal. Instead, the crystal undergoes shear-induced melting, beginning from its edges, due to its collisions with the dish. As a result of repetitive collisions, the beads acquire kinetic energy, undergo rearrangements, and become disordered. Unlike most examples of shear-induced melting, portions of the crystal remain locally ordered given the persistence of electrostatic interactions and the occurrence of some collisions that are favorable to ordering clusters of beads. Our work clarifies the melting behavior of sheared crystals whose constituents have persistent long-range interactions. It may prove valuable in determining the conditions under which such materials are immune to disorder.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An all-solid-state thin-layer laminated cell for calibration-free coulometric determination of K+

  Electrochimica Acta · 2022-01-21 · 10 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Magnetic fields enhance mass transport during electrocatalytic reduction of CO2

  Chem Catalysis · 2022-02-15 · 58 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Programmable soft valves for digital and analog control

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2022-09-26 · 85 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  In soft devices, complex actuation sequences and precise force control typically require hard electronic valves and microcontrollers. Existing designs for entirely soft pneumatic control systems are capable of either digital or analog operation, but not both, and are limited by speed of actuation, range of pressure, time required for fabrication, or loss of power through pull-down resistors. Using the nonlinear mechanics intrinsic to structures composed of soft materials-in this case, by leveraging membrane inversion and tube kinking-two modular soft components are developed: a piston actuator and a bistable pneumatic switch. These two components combine to create valves capable of analog pressure regulation, simplified digital logic, controlled oscillation, nonvolatile memory storage, linear actuation, and interfacing with human users in both digital and analog formats. Three demonstrations showcase the capabilities of systems constructed from these valves: 1) a wearable glove capable of analog control of a soft artificial robotic hand based on input from a human user's fingers, 2) a human-controlled cushion matrix designed for use in medical care, and 3) an untethered robot which travels a distance dynamically programmed at the time of operation to retrieve an object. This work illustrates pathways for complementary digital and analog control of soft robots using a unified valve design.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01GM030367

  NIH · $5.1M · 2012

• Micron- to Millimeter-scale Self Assembly

  NSF · $632k · 2005–2010

• NIH Grant R37GM030367

  NIH · $5.0M · 2001

• NIH Grant R01GM034411

  NIH · $414k · 1988

• NIH Grant R01ES016665

  NIH · $2.1M · 2013

Frequent coauthors

• Donald E. Ingber

  Boston Children's Hospital

  83 shared

• Emanuele Ostuni

  59 shared

• Piotr Garstecki

  Institute of Physical Chemistry

  56 shared

• Younan Xia

  The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering

  46 shared

• Richard Smith

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  41 shared

• Ralph G. Nuzzo

  39 shared

• Xingyu Jiang

  Zhejiang University

  39 shared

• Jinming Gao

  The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

  38 shared

Labs

• Whitesides GroupPI

Education

• B.S., Chemistry

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1972

• Ph.D., Chemistry

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1976