Michael Cima

Dr. Michael J. Cima is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has an appointment at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.  He earned a B.S. in chemistry in 1982 (Phi Beta Kappa) and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1986, both from the University of California at Berkeley. Prof. Cima joined the MIT faculty in 1986 as an Assistant Professor.  He was promoted to full Professor in 1995.  He was elected a Fellow of the American Ceramics Society in 1997 and received the Fulrath award in 2003. Prof. Cima was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 and to the National Academy of Inventors in 2016.   He now holds the David H. Koch Chair of Engineering at MIT.  He was appointed faculty director of the Lemelson-MIT Program in 2009 which is a program to inspire youth to be inventive and has a nationwide reach. He was appointed Associate Dean of Engineering in 2018 and co-director of the MIT Innovation Initiative.

Prof. Cima is author or co-author of over two hundred and fifty peer reviewed scientific publications, fifty US patents, and is a recognized expert in the field of medical devices and materials processing.  Prof. Cima is actively involved in materials and engineered systems for improvement in human health such as treatments for cancer, metabolic diseases, trauma, and urological disorders.  Prof. Cima’s research concerns advanced forming technology such as for complex macro and micro devices, colloid science, MEMS and other micro components for medical devices that are used for drug delivery and diagnostics, high-throughput development methods for formulations of materials and pharmaceutical formulations.

He is a coinventor of MIT’s three dimensional printing process.  Machines and products by many licensees using this process are used throughout the world.  His research has led to the development of chemically derived epitaxial oxide films for HTSC coated conductors.  He and collaborators are developing implantable MEMS devices for unprecedented control in the delivery of pharmaceuticals and implantable diagnostic systems.  Finally, through his consulting work he has been a major contributor to the development of high throughput systems for discovery of novel crystal forms and formulations of pharmaceuticals.  Prof. Cima also has extensive entrepreneurial experience.  He is co-founder and director of MicroChips Biotech., a developer of microelectronic based drug delivery and diagnostic systems.  Prof. Cima took two sabbaticals to act as senior consultant and management team member at Transform Pharmaceuticals Inc. a company that he helped start and that was ultimately acquired by Johnson and Johnson Corporation.  He is a co-founder and director at T2 Biosystems a medical diagnostics company.  Prof. Cima is also a co-founder and director of Taris Biomedical a company specializing in pharmaceutical products for urology.