Yoel Fink

Director, Material Sciences And Engineering, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology

Fibers are among the earliest forms of human expression, yet surprisingly have remained unchanged from ancient to modern times. Can fibers become highly functional devices? Can they see, hear, sense, communicate, store energy and release chemicals? Fink's research has pioneered fiber devices (fibers@mit) and is setting the stage for harnessing weaving and knitting technologies to create integrated fabric systems. Through his research, he hopes to redefine what a fabric is.

Professor Fink holds a B.A. in Physics and a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the Technion, and a PhD from MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He is the recipient of multiple awards, among them the National Academies Initiatives in Research (2004), the MacVicar Fellowship (2007) for outstanding teaching and the Collier Medal (2016). Professor Fink is a co-founder of OmniGuide Inc. (2000) and served as its chief executive officer from 2007–2010. He presided over its commercial launch, established an 80% gross margin business and grew it to $20M. He is the coauthor of over eighty scientific journal articles and holds over fifty issued U.S. patents on multimaterial fibers and devices. As Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics, he initiated the Translational Fellows Program, a postdoc venture program to facilitate research derived ventures, and the Low Cost Renovation effort, and during his tenure, the Lab became fully endowed.

Fink recently led MIT's $317M winning proposal for the creation of the Revolutionary Fibers and Textiles Manufacturing Innovation Institute (RFT-MII) located near MIT. The Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) Institute is backed by industry, academia, government, and venture capital and is aimed at accelerating a widespread commercialization of highly functional fabrics.

Realizing a Moore's Law for Fibers

In this talk, Professor Fink will share the vision of creating revolutionary highly functional fibers and fabrics. Fink led a $317M winning proposal for the creation of the Revolutionary Fibers and Textiles Manufacturing Innovation Institute (RFT-MII) located near MIT. Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) is a broad new collaboration between industry, academia, and government; its goal is to enable the transformation of fiber and fabric materials into highly functional devices and systems that will see, hear, sense and communicate, store and convert energy and change color.