Professor Kirby has received a 2002 R&D Top 100 Invention award for work on microvalves for high pressure-fluid control, a 2004 JD Watson Investigator award for microdevices for protein production and analysis, and a 2006 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) award for nanoscale electrokinetics and bioagent detection. He has received the 2008 Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Tucker Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2013 Robert ’55 and Vanne ’57 Cowie Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2015 James M. and Marsha D. McCormick Excellence in Advising Award, and the 2015 Cornell College of Engineering Research Excellence Award. Prof. Kirby has taught in various capacities in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell, the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford, and the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Michigan, and has authored a leading textbook on microscale and nanoscale fluid mechanics.