Sochol, Ryan D.
Associate Professor
Fischell Institute Fellow
Fischell Institute Fellow
Mechanical Engineering
Fischell Department of Bioengineering
Maryland Robotics Center
The Institute for Systems Research
Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices
Fischell Department of Bioengineering
Maryland Robotics Center
The Institute for Systems Research
Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices
3156 Brendan Iribe Center
BACKGROUND
Prof. Sochol’s Bioinspired Advanced Manufacturing (BAM) Laboratory pioneers micro/nanoscale additive manufacturing or “3D printing” strategies that advance life sciences and biomedical applications to, ultimately, benefit human health and well-being. These efforts rely primarily on an alternative 3D printing technology called “Two-Photon Direct Laser Writing”, including using the recently acquired state-of-the-art 3D micro/nanoprinter housed in Prof. Sochol's lab (which is accessible to internal and external users).
Dr. Sochol currently serves as Interim Director of the Maryland Robotics Center (MRC) and holds a joint appointment as an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering & the Institute for Systems Research (ISR). Dr. Sochol is also Fischell Institute Fellow of the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices and an affiliate faculty member of the Fischell Department of Bioengineering.
EDUCATION
- Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley (2011)
- M.S., University of California, Berkeley (2009)
- B.S., Northwestern University (2006)
POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING
- NIH Fellow within the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham & Women’s Hospital
- Director/Founder of the Micro Mechanical Methods for Biology (M3B) Laboratory Program within the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center at the University of California, Berkeley
- Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow within the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo
HONORS AND AWARDS
- E. Robert Kent Outstanding Teaching Award for Junior Faculty | 2025
- IEEE MEMS Outstanding Oral Presentation Award | 2025
- ASME Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering | 2024
- IMT Masken und Teilungen AG - Microfluidics on Glass Award | 2024
- Microsystems & Nanoengineering/Springer Nature Outstanding Paper Award | 2024
- Micromachines – MDPI Outstanding Poster Award | 2024
- Advanced Materials Technologies “Rising Star” | 2023
- Springer Nature Best Paper Award – Runner Up | 2022
- Springer Nature Best Poster Award – Finalist | 2022
- JMM “Early Career Award” | 2021
- JMM “Emerging Leader” | 2021
- IEEE MEMS Outstanding Paper Award | 2021
- NSF CAREER Award | 2020
- IEEE MEMS Art in Microtechnology Award – Finalist | 2020
- µTAS Art in Science Award – Runner Up | 2019
- IEEE MEMS Outstanding Paper Award | 2019
- Gemstone Mentor of the Year Award – Sophomore Team | 2017
- Micro/Nanoscale Additive Manufacturing (“3D printing”)
- Advanced Manufacturing & Micro/nanomanufacturing
- Soft Robotics / Microrobotics / Surgical Robotics
- 3D Printing-Enabled Biomedical Technologies
- Cell Mechanobiology & Physicobiology
- Integrated Fluidic Circuitry
- 3D Microelectronics
- Energetics
Primary Courses
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ENME 416 / ENME 744: Additive Manufacturing
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ENME 299Z: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to Machine Design
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VIPS 208R / 308R / 408R: 3D-Printed Video Game-Playing Soft Robots
Journal Covers
Selected Journal Publications
- Xin Xu, Yunxiu Qiu, Chen-Yu Chen, Molly Carton, Paige M.R. Campbell, A. Muhaymin Chowdhury, Bidhan C. Bandyopadhyay, William E. Bentley, Bryan Ronain Smith, and Ryan D. Sochol, “3D Nanoprinting of PDMS Microvessels with Tailored Tortuosity and Microporosity via Direct Laser Writing,” Lab on a Chip, Vol. 25, Issue 8, pp. 1947-1958, 2025. (Featured on the Inside Back Cover)
- Adira Colton, Ryan N. Halli, M. Rho Ma, Tejaswi Nori, Lucas K. Muller, Kieran J. Barvenik, Mahima Srivastava, Bibek Ramdam, Sunandita Sarker, Eleonora Tubaldi, Peter Kofinas, Kinneret Rand-Yadin, and Ryan D. Sochol, “Geometric Determinants of Sinterless, Low-Temperature-Processed 3D-Nanoprinted Glass,” Microsystems & Nanoengineering, 2025.
- Olivia M. Young, Xin Xu, Sunandita Sarker, and Ryan D. Sochol, “Direct Laser Writing-Enabled 3D Printing Strategies for Microfluidic Applications,” Lab on a Chip, Vol. 24, Issue 9, pp. 2371-2396, 2024. (Invited Review Article)
- Sunandita Sarker, Adira Colton, Ziteng Wen, Xin Xu, Metecan Erdi, Anthony Jones, Peter Kofinas, Eleonora Tubaldi, Piotr Walczak, Miroslaw Janowski, Yajie Liang, and Ryan D. Sochol, “3D-Printed Microinjection Needle Arrays via a Hybrid DLP-Direct Laser Writing Strategy,” Advanced Materials Technologies, Vol. 8, Issue 5, pp. 2201641, 2023. (“Rising Star” Article; Featured on the Inside Front Cover)
- Joshua D. Hubbard†, Ruben Acevedo†, Kristen M. Edwards, Abdullah T. Alsharhan, Ziteng Wen, Jennifer Landry, Kejin Wang, Saul Schaffer, and Ryan D. Sochol, “Fully 3D-Printed Soft Robots with Integrated Fluidic Circuitry,” Science Advances, Vol. 7, Issue 29, pp. eabe5257, 2021. († = Equal Contribution; Featured on the Front Cover; View YouTube Video)
- Michael Restaino, Noah Eckman, Abdullah T. Alsharhan, Andrew C. Lamont, Jackson Anderson, Dana Weinstein, Asha Hall, and Ryan D. Sochol, “In Situ Direct Laser Writing of 3D Graphene-Laden Microstructures,” Advanced Materials Technologies, Vol. 6, Issue 8, pp. 2100222, 2021. (Featured on the Inside Front Cover)
- Abdullah T. Alsharhan, Olivia Young, Xin Xu, Anthony J. Stair, and Ryan D. Sochol, “Integrated 3D Printed Microfluidic Circuitry and Soft Microrobotic Actuators via In Situ Direct Laser Writing,” Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, Vol. 31, Issue 4, pp. 044001, 2021. (JMM “Early Career Award” Article)
- Connor D. Armstrong, Noah Todd, Abdullah T. Alsharhan, David I. Bigio, and Ryan D. Sochol, “A 3D Printed Morphing Nozzle to Control Fiber Orientation During Composite Additive Manufacturing,” Advanced Materials Technologies, Vol. 6, Issue 1, pp. 2000829, 2021. (Featured as a Frontispiece)
- Ruben Acevedo, Michael A. Restaino, Dongyue Yu, Sharon Flank, Stephen W. Hoag, and Ryan D. Sochol, “3D Nanoprinted Liquid-Core-Shell Microparticles,” Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Vol. 29, Issue 5, pp. 924-929, 2020. (View Accompanying YouTube Presentation)
- Abdullah T. Alsharhan, Ruben Acevedo, Roseanne Warren, and Ryan D. Sochol, “3D Microfluidics via Cyclic Olefin Polymer-Based In Situ Direct Laser Writing,” Lab on a Chip, Vol. 19, pp. 2799-2810, 2019. (Featured on the Front Cover)
- Andrew C. Lamont, Michael A. Restaino, Matthew J. Kim, and Ryan D. Sochol, “A Facile Multi-Material Direct Laser Writing Strategy,” Lab on a Chip, Vol. 19, pp. 2340-2345, 2019. (Selected as a “Hot Article”; Featured on the Inside Front Cover)
- Ryan D. Sochol, Eric Sweet, Casey C. Glick, Sunita Venkatesh, Kjell F. Ekman, Armen Avetisyan, Ashley Tsai, Andrius Raulinaitis, Aaron Weinkers, Kevin Korner, Karli Hanson, Alison Long, Ben J. Hightower, Gregory Slatton, David Burnett, Travis Massey, Kosuke Iwai, Luke P. Lee, Kristofer S.J. Pister, and Liwei Lin, “3D Printed Microfluidic Circuitry via Multijet-Based Additive Manufacturing,” Lab on a Chip, Vol. 16, pp. 668-678, 2016. (Featured on the Inside Back Cover; Lab on a Chip 2016 Top 25 Most Downloaded Articles)
Selected Conference Publications
- (Oral Presentation | YouTube Link) Chen-Yu Chen, Xin Xu, Ryan D. Sochol, and William E. Bentley, “3D-Microprinted Microfluidic Scaffolds and the Rapid Seeding Strategy for Organ-on-a-Chip Applications,” Proceedings of the 38th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (IEEE MEMS 2025), Kaohsiung, Taiwan. (Outstanding Student Oral Presentation Award Winner)
- (Oral Presentation | YouTube Link) Sunandita Sarker, Declan Fitzgerald, Olivia M. Young, Bailey M. Felix, and Ryan D. Sochol, “An Approach for 3D Microprinting of Soft Robotic Biopsy Tool at 1 French Length Scale via Ex Situ Direct Laser Writing,” Proceedings of the 21st Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Workshop (Hilton Head 2024), Hilton Head Island, SC, USA. (Microsystems & Nanoengineering/Springer Nature Outstanding Paper Award Winner)
- (Oral Presentation | YouTube Link) Xin Xu, Chen-Yu Chen, Ziteng Wen, Bidhan C. Bandyopadhyay, William E. Bentley, and Ryan D. Sochol, “3D-Microprinted PDMS-Based Microfluidic Vessels for Organ-on-a-Chip Applications,” Proceedings of the 37th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (IEEE MEMS 2024), Austin, TX, USA.
- (Oral Presentation | YouTube Link) Sunandita Sarker, Adira Colton, Ziteng Wen, Xin Xu, Piotr Walczak, Miroslaw Janowski, Yajie Liang, and Ryan D. Sochol, “A Hybrid 3D Micro-Nanoprinting Approach for Biomedical Microinjection Needle Arrays,” Proceedings of the 20th Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Workshop (Hilton Head 2022), Hilton Head Island, SC, USA. (Springer Nature Best Paper Award - Runner Up)
- (Oral Presentation | YouTube Link) Ruben Acevedo, Ziteng Wen, Ian B. Rosenthal, Emmett Z. Freeman, Michael Restaino, Noemi Gonzalez, and Ryan D. Sochol, “3D Nanoprinted External Microfluidic Structures via Ex Situ Direct Laser Writing,” Proceedings of the 34th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (IEEE MEMS 2021). (Outstanding Paper Award Winner)
- (Oral Presentation | YouTube Link) Abdullah T. Alsharhan, Anthony J. Stair, Ryan R. Utz, Andrew C. Lamont, Michael A. Restaino, Ruben Acevedo, and Ryan D. Sochol, “A 3D Nanoprinted Normally Closed Microfluidic Transistor,” Proceedings of the 33rd IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (IEEE MEMS 2020), Vancouver, Canada. (Art in Microtechnology Award Finalist)
- (Oral Presentation | YouTube Link) Andrew C. Lamont, Michael Restaino, and Ryan D. Sochol, “Rapid Multi-Material Direct Laser Writing,” Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (IEEE MEMS 2019), Seoul, Korea. (Outstanding Paper Award Winner)
- (Oral Presentation | YouTube Link) Joshua D. Hubbard, Chase Manny, Andrew Montgomery, Brian Freeman, Alec Boyle, and Ryan D. Sochol, “Multi-Material 3D Printed Microfluidic Circuitry Components,” Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (µTAS 2017), Savannah, GA.