Congratulations to Huimin Zhao, who was recently selected to receive the 2019 Enzyme Engineering Award for his pioneering contributions in the development of directed evolution for enzyme engineering.
The award, given by Engineering Conferences International, recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of enzyme engineering, through basic or applied research in academia or industry. It will be presented to Zhao at the 25th Enzyme Engineering Conference in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Previous winners include Frances Arnold, Zhao’s PhD advisor, as well as researchers Alex Klibanov, Harvey Blanch, and Chi Huey Wong.
Zhao is the Steven L. Miller Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the University of Illinois Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His primary research interests are in the development and applications of synthetic biology tools to address society’s most daunting challenges in health, energy, and sustainability, and in the fundamental aspects of enzyme catalysis, cell metabolism, and gene regulation. He leads the conversion reserach theme at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), a U.S. Department of Energy-funded Bioenergy Research Center, a collaboration between the University of Illinois Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB). Zhao is also leader of the Biosystems Design research theme at IGB.