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TSE Grantee Elected to the National Academy of Engineering
(August, 2003) Dr. Gregory N. Stephanopoulos of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is one of 77 new members recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering(NAE)
Election to the NAE is one of the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer, honoring those who have made important contributions to engineering theory and practice. The National Science Foundation (NSF) grantee, funded through a joint EPA/NSF research program, was singled out by the Academy "for pioneering contributions in defining and advancing metabolic engineering and for leadership in incorporating biology into chemical engineering research and education."
Dr. Stephanopoulos' research is being conducted under the Techology for a Sustantaible Environment (TSE) program, a research partnership between EPA and the NSF that began in 1995 and focuses on developing pollution-prevention technologies. With MIT colleague Anthony J. Sinskey, Dr. Stephanopoulos' TSE research targets the possible use of aquatic, photosynthetic bacteria (cyanobacteria) to fix the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), taking it out of the atmosphere where it can contribute to global warming. The ultimate aim of the research is to develop strains of cyanobacteria that can fix CO2 and convert the resulting compounds to useful chemical products. This approach uses metabolic engineering, or the transformation of cellular properties using modern genetic tools, to modify biochemical pathways inside cells and rigorously evaluate the results.
Dr. Stephanopoulos became a professor in MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering in 1985 where he is the Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering and Taplin Professor of Health Science and Technology. He has received numerous honors, including a Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award in 1982, a Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1984, and a Best Paper Award in Computers and Chemical Engineering in 1992.
Founded in 1964, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) provides engineering leadership in service to the nation. The NAE is directed "whenever called upon by any department or agency of the government, to investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art."
For more information, contact Estella Waldman at Waldman.Estella@epa.gov.