AIChE and its Society for Biological Engineering (SBE) are honoring two of bioengineering’s top researchers. Gregory Stephanopoulos, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is the recipient of the 2023 James E. Bailey Award. The winner of the 2023 D.I.C. Wang Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering is Dr. Huimin Zhao of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Both SBE awards will be presented at the 2023 AIChE Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida in November.
Gregory Stephanopoulos Receives the 2023 James E. Bailey Award
The 2023 James E. Bailey Award was created in memory of Professor Jay Bailey for his many pioneering contributions to biotechnology. The award aims to commemorate Bailey’s contributions by recognizing individuals who also have had an important impact on bioengineering.
Professor Stephanopoulos embodies the spirit of James Bailey, with outstanding contributions to biochemical engineering research, education, and professional service. His work in metabolic engineering research and education has had an enduring impact on the field. He has more than 450 papers, and 60 patents, has supervised more than 1,140 graduate and post-doctoral students, and has received numerous awards.
Dr. Stephanopoulos has made foundational contributions to the field of metabolic engineering, with a focus on engineering molecules to convert renewable substrates, such as plant matter (sugars) to other chemical products and fuels, enabling their sustainable production. His vision led to the formation of the MIT Metabolic Engineering Laboratory, which just celebrated its 31st anniversary in May.
Stephanopoulos continues to lead the Metabolic Engineering Laboratory, with a broad list of innovative programs. Areas of current research include natural products, such as isoprenoids, cancer cell metabolism, renewable chemicals, biofuels, yeast engineering, and and gas fermentation.
Huimin Zhao Receives the 2023 D.I.C. Wang Award
The D.I.C. Wang Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering was established in honor of Professor Daniel I.C. Wang in recognition of his pivotal contributions to the biochemical engineering profession and biotechnology community.
Dr. Zhao is the Steven L. Miller Chair of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), director of NSF AI Institute for Molecule Synthesis (moleculemaker.org), and Editor in Chief of ACS Synthetic Biology.
Dr. Zhao has authored and co-authored over 415 research articles and over 30 issued and pending patent applications. In addition, he has given over 470 plenary, keynote, or invited lectures. Thirty-four of his former graduate students and postdocs have become professors or principal investigators around the world. Dr. Zhao received numerous research and teaching awards and honors such as AIChE FP&B Division Award, ECI Enzyme Engineering Award, ACS Marvin Johnson Award, and SIMB Charles Thom Award.
The focus of Dr. Zhao’s research is in the development and application of synthetic biology, machine learning, and laboratory automation tools to address society’s most daunting challenges in health, energy, and sustainability. His laboratory has programs active in the areas of foundational tool development, drug discovery and development, industrial biotechnology, and mammalian synthetic biology, supplemented by machine learning and automation.
2023 AIChE Annual Meeting
Dr. Stephanopoulos will be presenting the Bailey Lecture entitled “Can biotechnology deliver cost-effective fuels with reduced carbon footprint?” on Tuesday, November 7th at 6:15pm.
Dr. Zhao will be presenting the D.I.C. Wang Lecture “Synthetic Biology 2.0: the Dawn of a New Era” on Wednesday, November 8th at 4:30pm.
Learn more about the meeting and register today.
About SBE
Established in 2004, the Society for Biological Engineering is a technological community for engineers and applied scientists integrating biology with engineering. Members of SBE come from a broad spectrum of industries and disciplines and share in SBE’s mission of realizing the benefits of bioprocessing, biomedical, and biomolecular applications. Learn more about SBE.