MAEGAN EDWARDS. Design and Development of a Traveling Wave Ferro-Microfluidic Device and Multi-Physics Model for Potential Cell Separation and Sorting in Water Based Ferrofluids (Under the direction of DR. RODWARD L. HEWLIN, JR.)This thesis presents the design and development of a simple traveling wave ferro- microfluidic device and system rig purposed for the potential manipulation and magnetophoretic separation of cells in water-based ferrofluids. This thesis details in full: (1) a computational multi-physics model developed for predicting the dynamics of magnetic and nonmagnetic microparticles in the ferro-microfluidic device, (2) a method for tailoring cobalt ferrite nanoparticles for specific diameter size ranges (10-20nm), (3) the development of a ferro-microfluidic device for potentially separating cells and magnetic nanoparticles, (4) the development of a water-based ferrofluid with magnetic nanoparticles and non-magnetic microparticles and (5) the design and development of a system rig for producing the electric field within the ferro-microfluidic channel device for magnetizing and manipulating nonmagnetic particles in ferro-microfluidic channel. The results reported in this thesis demonstrate proof of concept for magnetophoretic manipulation and separation of magnetic and non-magnetic particles in a simple ferro- microfluidic device. The design reported in this model is an improvement over existing magnetic excitation microfluidic system designs in that heat is efficiently removed from the circuit board to allow a range of input currents and frequencies to manipulate non- magnetic particles. Although this work did not analyze the separation of cells from magnetic particles, the results demonstrate that non-magnetic (surrogates for cellular materials) and magnetic entities can be separated and, in some cases, continuously pushed through the channel based on amperage, size, frequency and electrode spacing. The results reported in this work establish that the developed ferro-microfluidic device may potentially be used as an effective platform for microparticle and cellular manipulation and sorting. This research consisted of a multi-physics computational model development and analyses as well as MEMS fabrication techniques, to develop an integrated microfluidic device that employs ferrofluids (an aqueous suspension of magnetic nanoparticles for manipulation and separation of target particles). Conceptually, the magnetic nanoparticles in the ferrofluid direct the nonmagnetic moieties to collection sites once subjected to traveling magnetic fields. We present a detailed treatment of the physical mechanism underlying the manipulation of nonmagnetic particles using ferrofluids, including a thorough theoretical analysis of the dynamic behavior of particles within ferro-microfluidic devices.