Recommended by Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Li Mi, a Ph.D. candidate of the institute beat competitors and won the BHP Billiton Student Scholarship for the year 2012. His tutor, Dr. Ning Xi, got the Tutor Research Award.

Dedicated to research in the cross field between robotics and bioscience, Li Mi undertook the “Research on the application of nano manipulation robot in lymphoma cells targeted therapy” under the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He proposed an immobilization method for observing living, suspended mammalian cells under atomic force microscopy (AFM), based on combining MEMS pillar arrays and electrostatic adsorption. A non-destructive measurement method of mechanical characteristics for lymphoma cells and a detection method for force and density of antigen molecules based on nano manipulation robot technology were developed.

BHP Billiton, a diversified resource company in Australia, and the graduate school of CAS jointly established the BHP Billiton Scholarship in 2005. Each year, 25 winners are chosen from among postgraduate students of CAS, and tutors of the winners will get the Tutor Research Award accordingly. Until this year, seven postgraduate students from SIA have won the scholarship.

(Source: Human Resource and Education Department)