Canan Dağdeviren develops a device to facilitate skin cancer diagnosis.

2015 MIT Technology Review announced Canan Dağdelen, an exceptional female Turkish scholar, as an “Innovator Under 35.” Since 1999, the MIT Technology Review has awarded numerous innovators, ranging from Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder of Facebook, to Helen Greiner, the cofounder of iRobot.  Canan Dağdeviren will be awarded at the annual EmTech MIT conference on September, which will take place at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

An exceptional materials scientists and physicist, Canan Dağdeviren has developed a tattoo-like wearable device that facilitates the diagnosis of skin cancer, providing results in less than 10 seconds. The device applies pressure to the skin and assesses mechanical properties. Considering that the mechanical properties of the skin cancer are known, the device can consequently detect whether skin is susceptible to cancer. The results are similar to that of a biopsy – Ms. Dağdelen’s device is a painless and quick alternative for such traditional methods to assess cancer.

The young talent is the very first Turkish national to be appointed as a “Junior Fellow” to Harvard University. Forbes also acknowledged Ms. Dağdelen as one of the “30 Yound Scientists Under 30.” Currently, she is a Post-Doctoral Associate under the supervision of Prof. Robert Langer at MIT.