Dr. Balaji Panchapakesan is a Full Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park in 2001. He earned his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the National Institute of Technology (formerly Regional Engineering College), India, in 1994. His interests are in liquid biopsies, cancer nanotechnology, viral nanotechnology, and nanomaterials. He has published over 100 articles, including journal and conference publications, conference presentations, and book chapters. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2005, the University of Maryland College Park Alumni Award in 2006, and the Francis Alison Young Scholar Award at the University of Delaware in 2006. He was also a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Senior Fellowship in 2021. He invented the Nanotube-CTC-Chip microarray technology.