BIOT presents 2017 awards

The ACS Division of Biochemical Technology (BIOT) has announced the winners of its 2017 awards. The awards were presented during the spring ACS national meeting in San Francisco.

Michael Betenbaugh, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins University, is the recipient of the SBE/AIChE/BIOT Daniel I. C. Wang Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering. The award honors an individual for their contributions to the field and practice of biochemical engineering.

Wilfred Chen, Gore Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, is the recipient of the Marvin J. Johnson Award in Microbial & Biochemical Technology. Sponsored by Pfizer, the award recognizes outstanding research contributions to microbial and biochemical technology.

Michael Jewett, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University, is the recipient of the BIOT Young Investigator Award, sponsored by Genentech. The award recognizes an outstanding young contributor to the field of biochemical technology who is also an active participant in BIOT.

Brian Kelley, vice president of bioprocess development at Genentech, is the recipient of the Alan S. Michaels Award in the Recovery of Biological Products. The award recognizes outstanding research and practice contributions toward the advancement of science and technology for the recovery of biological products and is sponsored by the Recovery Conference Series.

Nitin Rathore, director of process development at Amgen, has won the James M. Van Lanen Distinguished Service Award for outstanding leadership to the executive committee and the division and innovative contributions to national meeting programming, organization, and fundraising.

Christina D. Smolke, W. M. Keck Foundation Faculty Scholar in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University, received the David Perlman Memorial Lectureship, sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb. The award recognizes her contributions in developing microbial biosynthesis platforms for complex plant natural products, leading to transformative technologies for sourcing and discovering medicines.

The two winners of the 2017 W. H. Peterson Award are Shannon Stone of Caltech for her oral presentation titled “Bio-orthogonal chemistry enables proteomic analysis of Staphylococcus aureus during mammalian infection” and Shu Zhu of the University of Pennsylvania for her poster titled “Platelet-targeting thiol reduction sensor detects protein disulfide isomerase activity on activated platelets in mouse and human blood under flow.” The Peterson Award is given annually to student members who present outstanding research in sessions sponsored by BIOT at ACS national meetings.

For more information about the BIOT awards, visit the division website at www.acsbiot.org.