Stephen R. Quake received a B.S. in physics and an M.S. in mathematics from Stanford University and a D.Phil. in physics from Oxford University. Then he joined Steven Chu’s group as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford. In 1996, He joined California Institute of Technology as an assistant professor of applied physics. He was promoted to an associate professor in 1999, a professor in 2003, and the Thomas E. and Doris Everhart Professor of Applied Physics and Physics in 2004. He moved to Stanford in 2005 as a Professor of Bioengineering. He has won the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award and been named a Packard Fellow. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 2006.