bio
Craig Keller received his B.S. (physics) degree from Caltech, Pasadena, California and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees (physics) from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. During his time at Cornell, Craig was named a Hertz Fellow and was supported by the Fannie & John Hertz Foundation. His doctoral research was an experimental and theoretical investigation of the dynamics of charge transfer between atoms and surfaces at small separations.
After completing his dissertation, Craig moved to Gothenburg, Sweden to work as a postdoctoral fellow and eventually a staff scientist at the Chalmers Institute of Technology. While at Chalmers, Craig created a research program investigating the adsorption of biomolecules on surfaces. After four years in Sweden, Craig accepted a position as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Santa Barbara. At UCSB, Craig focused on understanding the folding of proteins and on detecting the presence of specific proteins in solution using a surface-based molecular transduction chain. Craig applied for and received a prestigious NIH National Research Service Award that supported his work at UCSB.
With each new academic position, Craig moved to a new field of research. In each new field, he has been able to publish in top scientific journals including Physical Review Letters, PNAS, and the Biophysical Journal.
Craig has been designing and building electronics and writing code for over 30 years. He started in high school as an electronics technician responsible for production builds and debugging. He founded and today continues to operate a successful end-to-end electronics development and prototyping business. Along the way, he has taught electronics and C programming, managed groups responsible for supplying medical device electronics and new medical device technologies, and has been awarded many patents for electronics in analytical systems and medical devices. Much of his current work focuses on providing high-performance electronics for various applications.
Craig joined a team developing a benchtop, time-of-flight mass spectrometer (a MALDI-TOF) for the profiling of biomolecules. As the resident physicist and system architect, Craig played a key role in developing an automated system to provide consistent high-end performance to users (biologists) who are not mass spectrometry experts.
Craig has developed energy-delivering medical devices both as a manager and technical lead. The surgical systems developed include a microwave system for pericardial cardiac ablation (Guidant/Boston Scientific), electrosurgical scalpels, and tissue-sealing devices (Covidien).
Craig has created multi-site cleaning strategies, performed cleaning assessments (Hyde), and performed characterization and optimization of manufacturing systems (Ethicon).
Craig has 23 granted patents and multiple active applications.