Amer will take a step back and look at the bio-engineer’s perspective on the industry, science vs. engineering vs. art. He’ll examine the “realities” of creativity, the 3 P’s, regulation, schedule, management of multidisciplinary efforts, getting a real product out the door. Amer’s examples will show how an engineer lives his biolife. Finally, Amer will present a “traffic copter’s” eyeview of the local biospace industry.
Amer El-Hage is an independent consultant in product design and program management for scientific instrument, medical devices companies and investment entities. Amer attended the American University of Beirut in 1973. He came to the United States in late 1976 and moved to California in 1979 to pursue graduate studies in Engineering. He received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with distinction from U.C. Berkeley in 1980.
After graduating, Amer worked at several Bay area companies. He held a variety of engineering and manufacturing positions at Beckman Instruments and Varian Associates. At Beckman, he was a development team member for Beckman first laboratory tabletop robot. At Varian, he was the principal engineer for the development of a micro volume autosampler.
From September 2000 until February 2004, Amer was an Engineering Director at Molecular Devices Corporation in Sunnyvale California. He directed the company’s first automated Electrophysiology engineering technology and transfer to production. From May 1991 to August 2000, Amer was a Senior Director of Engineering Programs at LJL BioSystems responsible for all their contracts in Bio-instrumentation and device development. LJL BioSystems was acquired by MDC in 2000.
Amer’s expertise is in project and program management, product transfer to manufacturing. He has strong technical knowledge in micro-fluidics, MEMS, automation systems, opto-mechanical, plastic molding and laboratory consumables specifically microplates, and the verification and validation, regulatory compliance of automated analytical instrumentations.
Mr. El-Hage is currently the chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Santa Clara-Silicon Valley chapter. He also co-chairs the Society of Bimolecular Screening (SBS) Microplate Standards Development Committee. He is a member of Microfludics MEMS International Standards Task force at SEMI, and the Laboratory Robotics Interest Group (LRIG) and other international organizations.
Mr. El-Hage’s name is on more than thirteen United States, and several international patents. He co-authored journal articles and made presentation at various drug discovery and Laboratory Automation conferences.
