Dr Erol Harvey

Dr Erol Harvey is the co-Founder and CEO of MiniFAB and has been involved in the commercial and scientific development of micro and nano technology for more that 20 years. In 2002, while he was a Professor of Microtechnology at Swinburne University, he and Michael Wilkinson started MiniFAB as a joint venture between the University and private investors. MiniFAB’s client base includes multinational companies, VC funded start-ups and university spin outs from around the world who contract MiniFAB to work on the translation and commercialisation of novel science in areas such as lab-on-a-chip diagnostics, biosensors, microfluidics and polymer microengineering. MiniFAB has offices in Germany, UK and the USA, has completed over 900 contracts and currently manufactures several millions of polymer nano-fluidic lab-on-a-chip biosensors per year. It is now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of polymer microfluidic devices and was named “Microfluidic Manufacturing Company of 2016” by the UK based Global Health and Pharma (GHP) Magazine.

Erol was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy Science and Engineering (ATSE) for his services in the commercialisation of nano and micro technologies. He is a frequent invited speaker on innovation, commercialisation and University / Industry collaboration. He chaired the Industrial Advisory Committee of the Australian Synchrotron, is on the Governing Board of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Molecular Imaging, is an industrial member of the evaluator’s college for NHMRC Development Grants and has served on several professional and review committees in Australia, UK, Germany and Canada. He has over 90 papers in international journals and proceeding publications, authored 4 chapters in technical books and the named inventor on a range of international patents covering applications from bank note manufacture, food packaging technology and microfluidic biosensors.

In 2011 MiniFAB was awarded the inaugural “Enabling Technology Company of the Year” and in recognition for achievements in entrepreneurship in emerging technology in 2012 Erol was awarded Enabling Technology Entrepreneur of the Year by the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame. He is enthusiastic about encouraging young scientific entrepreneurs and is on the Board of several technology startups, and the Small Technology Cluster ( www.stcaustralia.org ) – a not-for-profit business incubator started by MiniFAB in 2005.