Carson Bruns to speak at TEDxMileHigh

Carson Bruns, assistant professor in mechanical engineering with the ATLAS Institute, has been invited to speak about his Tech Tattoos project at the TEDxMileHigh conference in Denver. The event, called "Reset," takes place on Dec. 1, at the Bellco Theater and is open to the public.

Bruns directs the Laboratory for Emergent Nanomaterials, described as “an interdisciplinary group of scientists who think big and build small." In his upcoming talk, "Tattoos Can Give You Superpowers," he will discuss using nanotechnology to create tattoo inks that give new abilities to the skin, with potential applications in biomedicine, human-computer interfaces and self-expression. Specifically, his lab is working on inks that change color when exposed to sunlight or heat, and others that conduct electricity. Future research will explore inks that signal alterations in blood chemistry.

Bruns received a PhD in organic chemistry from Northwestern University under the guidance of Nobel Laureate J. Fraser Stoddart. Prior to joining ATLAS, he was a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

Bruns is the second ATLAS faculty member to be invited to speak at a TEDxMileHigh conference; in July 2017, Arielle Hein delivered her talk entitled "A New Way to Measure Time."