Alice Chen Garners Lemelson-MIT Student Prize

Alice A. Chen, a biomedical engineer and graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology and Harvard School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, is the winner of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, which is awarded annually to an MIT senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system, or in other ways displayed inventiveness in his or her research.

Chen was recognized for her innovative applications of microtechnology to study human health and disease. Chen also cofounded Sienna Labs, a biotechnology company that has developed a breakthrough class of new medical pigments to enhance microsurgeries for skin disease.

The Lemelson-MIT Program funds three additional $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prizes at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and California Institute of Technology. The winners of these prizes are Benjamin Clough of RPI, Scott Daigle of UIUC, and Guoan Zheng of Caltech.