Peng Xu, Associate Prof. of Chemical Engineering program, Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award. This award recognizes outstanding excellence in research and practice contributed to the field of biochemical engineering by a young community member in the world. Past winners of this award include multiple professors from MIT, Cornell, U Delaware, U Toronto, U Michigan, UT Austin, Northwestern, Harvard and Industrial leaders. Here is the full awardee list from 2011 to 2020 (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/biochemical-engineering-journal/young-investigator-award).

The Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award will be presented to Dr. Xu at the Engineering Conferences International (ECI) Biochemical and Molecular Engineering XXII, which will be held on June 26-30, 2022, in Cancun, Mexico. The award consists of a cash prize of $2,500 and a plaque. Dr. Xu is also invited to present a keynote award lecture in the coming ECI Biochemical and Molecular Engineering XXII conference, compose a review article for the journal and join the editorial board. 

ECI organizes the global interdisciplinary engineering conferences, originally established in 1962 and gained worldwide reputation in the past 50 years. Biochemical Engineering Journal aims to promote progress in the crucial chemical engineering aspects of the development of biological processes. Biochemical Engineering is the application of the state-of-the-art chemical engineering principles to design and analyze biological process for manufacturing fuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, protecting environment or promoting human health. Contemporary biochemical engineering is a multidisciplinary subject that conglomerates chemical engineering, biochemistry and genetics, mathematical modeling, bioprocess design and bioreactor optimization et al.

Prior to Dr. Xu's position at GTIIT, Dr. Xu is a tenure-track assistant professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the University of Maryland from 2016 to 2020. Dr. Xu is also the co-founder and Chief Scientist Officer at YaliBio, a San Francisco-based synthetic biology startup company dedicated to solving challenges in food, health and medicine. At GTIIT, Dr. Xu will teach Chemical Reaction Kinetics, Biochemical Engineering, and Synthetic Biology. The course aims to provide Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology students a deep understanding in engineering of cellular processes and better prepare them for entering graduate school or the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Dr. Xu will lead the "Synthetic Biology and Intelligent Control" lab, his lab will explore a number of research topics, including Metabolic Engineering, Green manufacturing, Synthetic Biology, Cellular intelligence and bio-computing,  Feedback control theory,  Biochemical reaction network, Bio-mathematical modeling and  Host-Microbiome interactions et al. Dr. Xu hopes to continue the legacy of many Biochemical Engineering pioneers and prepare the career success of the students at GTIIT.

Introduction to Dr. Xu

Peng Xu is an Associate professor of Guangdong-Technion Chemical Engineering program, Israel Institute of Technology. Prior to his position at Technion, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering at University of Maryland Baltimore County from 2016 to 2020. He obtained the BS and MS degree in Biological and Biochemical Engineering from Jiangnan University, the PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2013) and completed his postdoc training in the Stephanopoulos lab at MIT (2016).  Dr. Xu served in the editorial board for the journal Metabolic Engineering (IF = 7.3) and the journal Current Opinion in Biotechnology (IF = 8.3). Dr. Xu has received a number of awards and recognitions, including the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad (2012), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Award (2018), the Biotechnology & Bioengineering (B&B) Daniel IC Wang Award (2020) and the Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award (2021).

Text/Photos: Peng Xu, GTIIT News & Public Affairs