For the Chemistry Department's first IBAC seminar of the spring semester, we were joined by Alum Kirk M. Ririe, who was recently inducted into the Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame, and now serves on the Board of Trustees of the Utah Technology Council.
IBAC (Interfacial and Bioanalytical Chemistry) at the University of Utah provides a unique focus for graduate education in the Department of Chemistry. Ten research groups combine their state-of-the-art expertise in electroanalytical methods and scanning electrochemical microscopy, surface-plasmon resonance spectroscopy and microscopy, sum-frequency and second-harmonic generation, Raman microscopy, single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy, and nanoscale self-assembled structures to address important research problems in both fundamental and applied areas of interfacial and bioanalytical chemistry. Courses selected from analytical, physical, and biological chemistry, applied mathematics, and bioengineering provide a foundation for graduate study and research.
Kirk M. Ririe, born into an entrepreneurial family, pursued a broad education in chemistry, engineering, languages, and communication, receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Utah in 2005.
Dr. Carl Wittwer Ph.D., M.D., friend and mentor at the University of Utah, mentioned an idea for an incredible new technology that shortened a cutting-edge DNA analysis technique (PCR) from hours to minutes. Kirk built a prototype, photographed it and ran an ad in a scientific journal. Thus, Idaho Technology, Inc. (ITI) was born in 1990 (and has since
changed its name to BioFire Diagnostics, Inc.) Working with Dr. Wittwer and the University of Utah, ITI received NIH funding to add real-time fluorescent monitoring of the PCR reaction to its earliest PCR instrument, thus creating the LightCycler.® In 1997, Kirk, Carl and colleague Randy Rasmussen brokered a multi-year, multimillion-dollar licensing and collaborative research agreement with Roche Molecular Biochemicals.
In 1999, Kirk received the National Tibbetts Award on behalf of ITI’s outstanding contribution to the SBIR program and the Franklin Jefferson Award in Science and Technology Innovation. In 2004, Kirk was an honored recipient of the 2004 Utah Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and ITI received awards from Frost & Sullivan for Business Development Strategy Leadership in the Biological Detector Market and Utah Business Magazine as one of Utah’s Top 20 High Tech Companies. ITI was awarded the North American Biological Detection Company of the Year in 2007 and celebrated 20 years in business in 2010.
In 2011, Kirk’s latest invention, the FilmArray® System and Respiratory Panel, a user-friendly PCR system for the point-of-care diagnostic market, received FDA clearance with the ability to test for dozens of different organisms simultaneously in under an hour. Other panels that have since been FDA cleared are the Blood Culture Identification Panel (2013) and Gastrointestinal Panel (2014).
1/29/2026