Matthew P. DeLisa is the William L. Lewis Professor of Engineering in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University and also the Director of the Cornell Institute of Biotechnology. His research focuses on understanding and controlling the molecular mechanisms underlying protein biogenesis -- folding and assembly, membrane translocation and post-translational modifications -- in the complex environment of a living cell. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1996; a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2001; and did postdoctoral work at the University of Texas-Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering. DeLisa joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University in 2003.
DeLisa is an elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also selected to the IDA/DARPA Defense Science Study Group in 2014 and invited to serve on the National Academies Committee on Innovative Technologies to Advance Pharmaceutical Manufacturing in 2019. Most recently, in 2021, he was selected to the inaugural “Life Sciences Power 50” by City & State New York. DeLisa has also received a number of prestigious awards for his accomplishments in research including the American Chemical Society BIOT Division Young Investigator Award, Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, NYSTAR Watson Young Investigator Award, NYSTAR Distinguished Faculty Award, MIT Technology Review TR35 Award (Top 35 Young Innovators under the age of 35), Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, and Wiley-Blackwell Biotechnology and Bioengineering Wang Award.