AIChE's Society for Biological Engineering (SBE) has awarded its inaugural June Wispelwey Bio Leadership Fellowship to Dr. Mattheos Koffas of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Professor Mattheos Koffas, Ph.D., is the Dorothy and Fred Chau ’71 Career Development Constellation Professor in Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering. Dr. Koffas’s laboratory is known for pioneering work on the engineering of microbial platforms that can produce natural products typically derived from animal and plant sources.
The fellowship is named for June C. Wispelwey, who in the early 2000s served as the first Executive Director of SBE, and then, from 2008 to 2022, as AIChE’s Executive Director.
On Tuesday, November 7, the Wispelwey Award will be presented to Koffas during SBE’s reception held in connection with the 2023 AIChE Annual Meeting, November 5–10 in Orlando, Florida.
Research career
In his research career, Dr. Koffas has worked with a variety of microorganisms and natural products, including amino acids, polyphenols, fatty acids, and terpenoids. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, more than 12 book chapters, and holds 10 patents. He is a member of the editorial boards of various journals in the area of bioengineering, editor-in-chief of Metabolic Engineering Communications, and associate editor for Biotechnology Advances. His research has been funded by federal agencies (NIH, ARPA-E and NSF), the state of New York (NYSTEM), and industrial partners (Evonik, Firstwave Technologies, and Chromadex).
The title of Professor Koffas’s fellowship project is “Development of animal-free biomanufacturing of animal natural products for biomedical applications.” A preliminary statement of funds availability has been proposed, and the detailed scope of work for this project is being developed.