Director and CEO of Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA); Associate Director, MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics; MIT Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Joint Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Professor Fink received a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (1994) and a B.A. degree in Physics (1995) from the Technion, Haifa. In 2000 he was awarded a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science from MIT. That same year, he joined the faculty of the MIT Materials Science and Engineering Department. In 2011 he became a joint professor of electrical engineering and computer science and was appointed as the Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics. Professor Fink was a recipient of the Weizmann Institute Amos De-Shalit Foundation Scholarship in 1992, was awarded the Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Competition in 1994, was a recipient of the Technology Review Award for the 100 Top Young Innovators in 1999, and was awarded the National Academy of Sciences Initiatives in Research Award for 2004. In 2006 he won the Joseph Lane Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2007 was named one of the MIT MacVicar Fellows, an award given in recognition of outstanding teaching abilities. Professor Fink’s research group (fibers@mit) has pioneered the field of multimaterial multifunctional fibers. His research focuses on extending the frontiers of fiber materials from optical transmission to encompass electronic, optoelectronic and even acoustic properties. Professor Fink recently led a $317M winning proposal for the creation of AFFOA, the Revolutionary Fibers and Textiles Manufacturing Innovation Institute located in Cambridge. AFFOA’s mission is to enable a domestic manufacturing-based revolution by transforming traditional fibers, yarns, and fabrics into highly sophisticated, integrated and networked devices and systems. Professor Fink is also a co-founder of OmniGuide, Inc. (2000) and served as its chief executive officer from 2007-2010 and as chairman of the board from 2011-2012. He is the coauthor of over eighty-five scientific journal articles, and holds over forty-five issued U.S. patents on photonic fibers and devices.