Douglas Clark
Dean and Professor, University of California, Berkeley
We are delighted to announce that Douglas Clark, Dean of College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley will be delivering the opening keynote address at this year's Commercializing Industrial Biotechnology conference on "From Baffles to Biofuels and Beyond: The Evolution of Biochemical Engineering at Berkeley."
From Baffles to Biofuels and Beyond: The Evolution of Biochemical Engineering at Berkeley
Doug Clark, Dean of College of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley
Biotechnology has had a profound impact on society for centuries, with products ranging from foodstuffs to industrial chemicals to early antibiotics. Then in the 1940s large-scale penicillin production expanded the scope of industrial biotechnology and helped launch academic biochemical engineering as we now know it. Led by early practitioners such as Elmer Gaden and many who followed throughout academia, biochemical engineering experienced phenomenal growth as an academic discipline in parallel with the spectacular commercial success of a burgeoning industry. Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley was among the early programs to invest in biochemical engineering, thanks in large part to the foresight of its first department chair, Charles Wilke.
In this presentation, I will trace the history of biochemical engineering at Berkeley in the broader context of revolutionary advances that have occurred in the field, using examples ranging from the century-old quest for renewable biofuels to the growing threat of multidrug-resistant organisms. New strategies for meeting pressing needs will be touched on, as will future directions in which the field may be headed. One clear lesson to emerge is that while much has changed in biotechnology over the last few decades, one constant is the vital role of biochemical and bioprocess engineering, and the importance of close collaboration and partnership between academia and industry.