Xueming Zhao Lectureship Award in Metabolic Engineering

Professor Xueming Zhao was one of the pioneers in the introduction of metabolic engineering in China. Following the publication of two seminal papers in Science in 1991 he established seminars and conferences on metabolic engineering in China, often inviting foreign professors to give lectures. He also lobbied for establishing metabolic engineering as an independent program for grants applications as well as he initiated courses about metabolic engineering. In 1995, he succeeded in opening up the first course about metabolic engineering for graduate students in China, using the textbooks named Bioreaction Engineering Principles and Metabolic Engineering: Principles and Methodologies. In 2003, he introduced the 2nd Edition of Bioreaction Engineering Principles to the Chemical Industry Press in the series of World Famous Textbooks to be published in China. He also took leadership in translating Metabolic Engineering: Principles and Methodologies to Chinese, which was also published in China in 2003. Subsequently he took leadership in writing a new textbook on metabolic engineering in Chinese, which was published in 2015.

Professor Xueming Zhao established his independent research group as a full professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University in 1993, and retired there in 2015. During 1997-2003, he was appointed as the Dean of College of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University, which ranked 1st in the area of Chemical Engineering in China. He has authored and co-authored more than 200 research articles and many of his former students have become professors and senior research scientists in the field of metabolic engineering worldwide.

Thus, both through providing textbooks on metabolic engineering in Chinese and through educating many current academics in the field of metabolic engineering, Xueming Zhao has been instrumental in establishing this field as a scientific discipline in China. It is for this reason that the International Metabolic Engineering Society has decided to establish a prestigious lectureship in his name. This Xueming Zhao Lectureship will be given to a prominent Chinese researcher in the field of metabolic engineering every second year in connection with the Metabolic Engineering Summit held in China.