Michael Westphall, Coon Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dr. Michael Westphall, describes himself as distinguished instrument innovator, works in the Coon Laboratory which occupies newly renovated space within the Genome Center of Wisconsin; nestled between Chemistry, Biochemistry, Genetics, Biomolecular Chemistry, and the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. He earned his B.S. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin and Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Washington University. His career at the University of Wisconsin has been guided by the same principle throughout his career; making difficult but desired measurements possible since measurement forms the foundation of the scientific method. The limitation to measure scientific theory has always motivated his research and has led to a lifelong career pursuing new techniques and instruments to perform measurements which currently cannot be made. His research now focuses on the development of techniques and instrumentation for measurements in biotechnology.