David Juncker studied at the Institute of Microtechnology of the French speaking University of Neuchâtel, and received a degree in Electronics–Physics in 1996. He spent a year in Japan as a visiting scientist at the National Metrology Institute of Japan in Tsukuba, working on a microelectromechanical (MEMS) accelerometer. In 1999 he returned to Switzerland and studied and worked at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, earning his PhD in 2002.
Dr. Juncker is currently an Associate Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department of McGill University. In 2006 he was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Micro- and Nanobioengineering. In 2012, he was selected as Young Scientist by the IAP – the global network of science academies – and represented Canada at World Economic Forum, Summer Davos New Champions Meeting, Tianjin, China.
His current interest is the exploration of miniaturization and integration in biology and medicine, which includes the conception, engineering and utilization of novel micro and nanotechnologies for manipulating, stimulating and studying oligonucleotides, proteins, cells, and tissues. The emerging nanobiotechnology in a broad sense is the most exciting to him, and is also key to tackle some of the major challenges in biology and medicine, for example identify novel biomarkers for early disease diagnosis or develop low cost point-of-care diagnostics for multiple diseases.
