Vikram (Vik) Bajaj is the lead scientist of Google Life Sciences, where he manages the Baseline Study, the Nanotechnology Program, and other projects. He is also an associate professor (consulting) at the Stanford School of Medicine and an affiliate scientist of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, for which he serves on the advisory board of the College of Chemistry. Dr. Bajaj’s research interests lie at the interface of the physical sciences, engineering, and the life sciences. For example, he and his collaborators have developed nanotechnology probes for the early detection and molecular imaging of disease; spectroscopic tools for imaging objects on the nanoscale; microfabricated and miniaturized analytical and imaging systems for point-of-care testing; methods and devices that dramatically enhance the sensitivity and specificity of MRI; and new tools for clinical bioinformatics. Aspects of this work have been commercialized through Agenea Sciences and SkinScan, where Dr. Bajaj was a founder or co-founder. Dr. Bajaj holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a principal investigator at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before coming to Google[x]. His scientific and engineering awards include the Anatole Abragam Prize (2012), awarded every three years; the R&D 100 award for the most promising commercialized technologies (in both 2011 and 2013); and the Department of Energy’s LBL Innovation Grant (2013). In 2011, he was named a visiting professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (young international scientist competition). Dr. Bajaj lives in Mountain View, California; his hobbies include general aviation and sailing.   

Nanotechnology