Kevin Land is an extraordinary professor at the University of Pretoria and program manager at the Centre for Advanced Rapid Diagnostics at Mologic, UK. He has been actively involved with microsystems technology for the last 20 years and works in the areas of microfluidics, microsystems engineering and low-cost diagnostic technologies.

He established the microsystems and microfluidics technology capabilities at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa and lead the microsystems group for 12 years. He has worked extensively on micromanufacturing applications with laser technology while previously at the National Laser Centre. He obtained a Dr.-Ing. in Microsystems Engineering through the Institute for Microsystems Technology (Imtek), University of Freiburg, Germany where the focus was on the design, development, manufacturing and testing of microfluidic droplet systems.

Kevin has a passion to develop equipment free or minimally instrumented low-cost diagnostics solutions utilising printed functionality and paper (or low-cost) substrates - particularly for developing countries where such solutions would have massively transformative impact and have the opportunity to reach billions of people. These are criteria encompassed by the REASSURED criteria.

Recent publications include:

·   Smith, S., Korvink, J.G., Mager, D. and Land, K., 2018. The potential of paper-based diagnostics to meet the ASSURED criteria. RSC Advances, 8(59), pp.34012-34034, doi.org/10.1039/C8RA06132G

·   Land, K.J., Boeras, D.I., Chen, X.S., Ramsay, A.R. and Peeling, R.W., 2019. REASSURED diagnostics to inform disease control strategies, strengthen health systems and improve patient outcomes. Nature microbiology, 4(1), p.46, doi: 10.1038/s41564-018-0295-3

·   Land, K.J. ed, Paper-based Diagnostics: Current Status and Future Applications, Springer Cham, 2019

·   Land, K.J., Smith, S. and Peeling, R.W., 2019. Unmet Diagnostics Needs for the Developing World. In Paper-based Diagnostics (pp. 1-21). Springer, Cham.

·   Smith, S., Mager, D., Korvink, J.G. and Land, K.J., 2019. Printed Functionalities on Paper Substrates Towards Fulfilment of the ASSURED Criteria. In Paper-based Diagnostics (pp. 123-170). Springer, Cham