Faculty & Staff

Dr. Anna Pyayt

Anna Pyayt

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL, AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING

Phone: 813-974-6250

Email: pyayt@usf.edu

Office: IDRB 202E

Research cluster: Biotechnology

Education & Training

CIFellow and Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

Dual PhD, Electrical Engineering and Nanotechnology, University of Washington

MSc, Electrical Enginering, University of Washington

Honors & Awards

  • Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical included our publication 鈥淒esign of an optofluidic sensor for rapid detection of hemolysis鈥� to be featured in their edition of Research Insights which appears both online and in nationally syndicated publications (2019)
  • Elsevier chose a paper about Mobile ELISA among thousands of papers for international news coverage (2018)
  • Invited to exhibit Hemolix technology at Cade museum (2018)
  • Award from the ADVANCE Florida Network Women in STEM Scholars (AFN-WISE) (2018)
  • Research was featured on Science Updates (AAAS radio) (2017)
  • Invited Technology Showcase Participant in the US Congress (2017)
  • Invited Showcase Participant in the National Academy of Sciences Convocation on 鈥淩evitalizing the University-Industry-Government Partnership" (2017)
  • Invited Participant in the APLU/AAU University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase (2017)
  • University of South Florida Excellence in Innovation Award (2017)
  • Inducted to the National Academy of Inventors (2016)
  • Best paper award at IEEE Sensors conference (2016)
  • Young Investigator award from North American Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy (NASSHP) (2015)
  • Finalist of the Vodafone Americas Foundation Annual Wireless Innovation Project (2015)
  • Sweet 16 in Cade Museum Competition (2015)
  • Finalist of the XPRIZE Nokia Sensing Xchallenge (2014)
  • Semi-finalist of the SPIE Challenge (2014)
  • Research highlighted in Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6171/600.full (2014)
  • Winners of the 2013 NSF/Science International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge (2014)
  • Computing Innovation Fellow, Stanford University, $270,000, 10/01/2009-9/30/2011
  • Microsoft Research Fellow (2007, 2008), US $100,000 for two years
  • Society of Women Engineers' Outstanding Female Award (2007)
  • Department of Electrical Engineering Chair鈥檚 award (2006
  • SPIE Educational Scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering four times in a row (2006, 2005, 2004, 2003), US $12,000
  • Nanotechnology UIF Graduate Research award for 2004-05 for the research titled "Novel wavelength selective switch based on new electro-optical materials and nano-fabrication technique", US $50,000
  • Electrical Engineering Young Innovator Fellowship (2003), US $50,000

 Research Overview

Dr. Pyayt鈥檚 Lab designs, develops and evaluates novel systems for biological and biomolecular sensing, manipulation and assembly. They have important applications to COVID-19 immunity monitoring, sepsis diagnosis and detection of pregnancy complications. Specific research areas include the following:

  • Sensors
  • Nanoscale endoscopy
  • Optofluidics
  • Point-of-care testing

Dynamic visualization of photothermal heating by gold nanocages using thermoresponsive elastin like polypeptides. Cover for Nanoscale. Credit: Howard Kaplan.