International Ambassador
Career Development of Dr. Andy Utada

The best product of the MRSEC is our students as exemplified by Andy Utada. Andy was a MRSEC graduate student, who was among the first to volunteer for additional responsibilities such as mentoring REU students, while studying droplet-based microfluidic techniques for his PhD. To gain a broader perspective, he took a postdoctoral project at the Industrial Science Institute (ISI) in Tokyo and then returned to take a position at Capsum (capsum.eu), a new start-up company commercializing new materials from MRSEC research on double-emulsion microfluidic fabrication. Utada joined another MRSEC alumni at Capsum and five other scientists working to produce new food products, in part based on the collaboration with Chef Ferran Adrià, on spherification methods at larger length scales. Andy has returned to the MRSEC on several occasions to meet with our current students and postdoctoral fellows to share his background and advice on their career development as a truly international ambassador.