Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Bioengineering, University of Washington, 2016
  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2006

Joshua R. Buser, Ph.D., is a technical consultant at Exponent with over 20 years of experience at the interface of science and engineering, with expertise including microfluidics design, prototyping, manufacturing, precision thermal control for bioassays, and hands-on design, fabrication, troubleshooting, and repair of electromechanical systems. 

He's developed a particular focus on systems integration for portable diagnostic bioassay platforms and early-stage product development across life sciences and medical diagnostics.

Dr. Buser specializes in medical diagnostic device development, microfluidic system design, and manufacturing scale-up, providing expert analysis and consulting for life science companies and academic institutions. His work encompasses hardware/bioassay integration, microfluidics development and manufacturing, systems engineering for medical diagnostics platforms, and temperature control, with a particular expertise in point-of-care diagnostic platforms for low-resource settings.

Serving clients in the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) industry along with academic and clinical researchers, Dr. Buser addresses challenges including fluidic device failure modes and manufacturing scale-up of complex multilayer microfluidic assemblies. His consulting experience spans sample preparation, precision thermal management for biochemical reactions, and transitioning prototypes from early-stage to manufacturing environments.

Dr. Buser's approach integrates first-principles engineering, hands-on fabrication, computational modeling, and laboratory validation to deliver rigorous and practical solutions. He brings deep expertise in microfluidics, fluidic and thermal modeling, sample preparation, and bioassay/fluidics/electromechanical hardware integration, with his fluency across mechanical and bioengineering, systems integration, and electromechanical domains enabling cross-functional collaboration.

Before joining Exponent, Dr. Buser served as the head of a small R&D firm in Philadelphia with projects including a complete redesign of a disposable microfluidic product and development of novel non-electric heaters for isothermal amplification using exothermic reactions and phase change temperature control. Prior to that he was the VP of R&D at Chip Diagnostics, where he led development of an extracellular vesicle sample preparation system, building a pilot supply chain enabling clinical research projects led by the University of Pennsylvania. As a postdoctoral researcher and Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, he advanced the scientific understanding of partially saturated flow in porous media and created next-generation portable diagnostic systems. Dr. Buser earned his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin — Madison.