Rate My Professor Mark Allen

Mark Allen is the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with secondary appointments in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He earned a B.A. in chemistry, B.S.E. in chemical engineering, and B.S.E. in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an S.M. in chemical engineering and a Ph.D. in microelectronics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Penn Engineering in 2013, Allen spent 24 years at the Georgia Institute of Technology, advancing from assistant professor to Regents' Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, holding the J.M. Pettit Professorship in Microelectronics, and serving as Senior Vice Provost for Research and Innovation and founding Executive Director of the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology. At Penn, he has served as the inaugural Scientific Director of the Singh Center for Nanotechnology for over a decade and directs the MicroSensors and MicroActuators Group.

Allen's research centers on the development and commercialization of micro- and nanofabrication technologies, particularly Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) for healthcare applications, including bioengineering, advanced materials, optics, photonics, and life sciences. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2023 for contributions to the technology and commercialization of MEMS for health care. Other honors include the IEEE Daniel E. Noble Award for Emerging Technologies in 2016, the IEEE Philadelphia Section Benjamin Franklin Key Award in 2020, IEEE Fellowship, and membership in the National Academy of Inventors. Key publications include 'Microfabricated microneedles: a novel approach to transdermal drug delivery' (Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 1998), 'Biodegradable polymer microneedles: fabrication, mechanics and transdermal drug delivery' (Journal of Controlled Release, 2005), and numerous patents such as US Patent 6,334,856 for microneedle devices. His work has significantly impacted the field through co-founding companies like CardioMEMS, the developer of the first FDA-approved permanently implantable wireless MEMS sensor for medical monitoring.