Frances Ligler


Frances S. Ligler is a biochemist and bioengineer who was a 2017 inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Ligler's research dramatically improved the effectiveness of biosensors while at the same time reducing their size and increasing automation. Her work on biosensors made it easier to detect toxins and pathogens in food, water, or when airborne.
In a 2017 interview, Ligler summarized her work: "Optical biosensors is a whole field where biological molecules are being used for recognition and transduce an optical signal to a small device. My teams and I demonstrated the use of optical biosensors for detection of pathogens in food, infectious diseases in people, biological warfare agents, environmental pollutants, explosives and drugs of abuse — things that can kill you." Ligler's interests include microfluidics, tissue on chips, optical analytical devices, biosensors and nanotechnology. Ligler holds 37 patents and has authored over 400 scientific papers.

Biography

Ligler received a B.S. from Furman University and a D.Phil. and D.Sc. from Oxford University. In 1986, she joined the US Naval Research Laboratory, where she developed sensors to detect anthrax and botulinum toxin that were deployed during Operation Desert Storm.
In 2013, she left the US Naval Research Laboratory to become the Lampe Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received honorary doctorates from the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece in 2014 and from Furman University in 2018. In 2022, she became Professor and Eppright Chair in Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Awards and honors