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Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee Wins 2025 Global Metabolic Engineering Award
< Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee (Senior Vice President for Research) from the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering >
KAIST announced on the 20th that Professor Sang Yup Lee, who serves as the Vice President for Research and a Distinguished Professor at our university, has been awarded the '2025 Gregory N. Stephanopoulos Award for Metabolic Engineering' by the International Metabolic Engineering Society (IMES). Professor Lee delivered his award lecture at the 16th Metabolic Engineering Conference (ME16), held in Copenhagen, Denmark, from June 15th to 19th.
This award was established through contributions from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Foundation, as well as fellow colleagues and acquaintances, to honor the achievements of Dr. Gregory Stephanopoulos, widely recognized as one of the pioneers of metabolic engineering. Presented biennially, the award recognizes scientists who have successfully commercialized fundamental research in metabolic engineering or have made outstanding contributions to the quantitative analysis, design, and modeling of metabolic pathways.
Professor Sang Yup Lee boasts an impressive record of over 770 journal papers and more than 860 patents. His groundbreaking research in metabolic engineering and biochemical engineering is highly acclaimed globally.
Throughout his 31 years as a professor at KAIST, Professor Lee has developed various metabolic engineering-based technologies and strategies. These advancements have been transferred to industries, facilitating the production of bulk chemicals, polymers, natural products, pharmaceuticals, and health functional foods. He has also founded companies and actively engages in advisory roles with various enterprises.
The International Metabolic Engineering Society (IMES) defines metabolic engineering as the manipulation of metabolic pathways in microorganisms or cells to produce useful substances (such as pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and chemical products). It utilizes tools like systems biology, synthetic biology, and computational modeling with the aim of enhancing the economic viability and sustainability of bio-based processes.
Furthermore, Professor Lee previously received the Merck Metabolic Engineering Award, a prominent international award in the field, in 2008. In 2018, he was honored with the Eni Award, often referred to as the Nobel Prize in energy, presented by the President of Italy.
Professor Sang Yup Lee remarked, "Metabolic engineering is a discipline that leads the current and future of biotechnology. It is a tremendous honor to receive this meaningful award at a time when the transition to a bio-based economy is accelerating. Together with my students and fellow researchers, we have generated numerous patents and transferred technologies to industry, and also established startups in the fields of biofuels, wound healing, and cosmetics. I will continue to pursue research that encompasses both fundamental research and technological commercialization."
The 'International Metabolic Engineering Society (IMES)' is a specialized society under the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Its mission is to enable the production of various bio-based products, including pharmaceuticals, food additives, chemicals, and fuels, through metabolic engineering. The society hosts the Metabolic Engineering Conference biennially, offering researchers opportunities for knowledge exchange and collaboration.
2025.06.20 View 6485 -
A KAIST Team Wins the Chem-E-Car Competition 2016
A KAIST team consisted of four students from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering won the Chem-E-Car Competition 2016, which took place on November 13 at the Union Square in San Francisco. The students who participated were Young-Hyun Cha, Jin-Sol Shin, Dae-Seok Oh, and Wan-Tae Kim. Their adviser was Professor Doh Chang Lee of the same department.
Established in 1999, the Chem-E-Car is an annual worldwide college competition for students majoring in chemical engineering. The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), founded in 1908, is the world’s leading organization for chemical engineering professionals with more than 50,000 members from over 100 countries and hosts this competition every year.
A total of 41 university teams including Carnegie Mellon University and Purdue University participated in this year’s competition.
KAIST students competed in the event for the first time in 2014 and reached the rank of 28. In 2015, the students placed 16th, and finally, took the first place in last month’s competition, followed by the Georgia Institute of Technology.
In the competition, students must design small-scale (20x30x40 cm) automobiles that operate chemically, as well as describe their research and drive their car a fixed distance down a wedge-shaped course to demonstrate the car’s capabilities. In addition to driving a specified distance (15-30 meters), the car must hold a payload of 0-500 mL of water.
The organizers tell participants the exact distance and amount of payloads one hour before the competition begins. Winners are chosen based on their finishing time and how close their car reaches the finish line. Thus, students must show sophisticated coordination of chemical reactions to win.
The KAIST team designed their car to have a stable power output using a Vanadium redox flow battery developed by Professor Hee Tak Kim of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. They employed iodine clock reactions to induce quick and precise chemical reactions to control their car.
KAIST’s car finished with the best run coming within 11 cm of the target line; Georgia Tech’s car reached the finish line by 13 cm and New Jersey Institute of Technology’s car by 14 cm.
Young-Hyun Cha, one of the four students, said, “When we first designed our car, we had to deal with many issues such as stalls or connection errors. We kept working on fixing these problems through trial and error, which eventually led us to success.”
For a news article on KAIST’s win at 2016 Chemi-E-Car Competition by AIChE, see the link below:
http://www.aiche.org/chenected/2016/11/koreas-kaist-wins-1st-place-2016-chem-e-car-competition-photos
2016.12.08 View 15429 -
Professor Jae-Hyung Lee appointed as AIChE fellow
Professor Jae-Hyung Lee from the Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering at KAIST was appointed as a fellow in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
Established in 1908, AIChE is the largest association of chemical engineers worldwide, which now boasts more than 40,000 members from 90 countries.
Following Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee from the same department at KAIST, Professor Jae-Hyung Lee is the second Korean appointed as a fellow by the organization.
He has been acknowledged for his innovative research on the improvement of model predictive control of industrial processes.
Professor Lee is the director of the Saudi Armaco-KAIST CO2 Management Center at KAIST, a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), and a member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology.
He received the Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1994 and the Computing in Chemical Engineering Award from AIChE in 2013.
2013.11.05 View 13526 -
Professor Jay H. Lee to receive the 2013 AIChE CAST Computing in Chemical Engineering Award
Professor Jay H. Lee of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at KAIST has won the 2013 Computing in Chemical Engineering Award of AIChE"s CAST Division (AIChE, American Institute of Chemical Engineers and CAST, Computing & Systems Technology Division).
The CAST Computing in Chemical Engineering Award, sponsored by The Dow Chemical Company, is annually given to an individual who has made outstanding contributions in the application of computing and systems technology to chemical engineering.Professor Lee has been recognized for his pioneering research contributions for “novel paradigms for much improved and robust model predictive control in industrial processes.” He is currently the Head of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department and Director of Brain Korea (BK) 21 Program at the department. BK21 is the Korean government’s initiative to support the growth of research universities in the nation and foster highly trained master’s and doctoral students as well as researchers.
The CAST Computing in Chemical Engineering Award will be presented to Professor Jay H. Lee at the CAST Division dinner to be held at the AIChE Annual Meeting this November in San Francisco, where he will also deliver the after dinner lecture associated with this award.
2013.06.12 View 15106 -
Distinguished Professor Lee Sang Yeop Appointed as Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers
Professor Lee Sang Yeop (Dean of the Department of Biological Sciences) has become the first Korea Scientist to be appointed as the Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers was founded in 1908 and boasts a 100 year history. It is composed of 43,000 members over 90 countries and is the largest international Academic Institute in the field of Chemical Engineering.
The Institute appoints Fellows after a rigorous procedure of recommendation and evaluation and Professor Lee is the first Korean to become a Fellow.
Professor Lee’s expertise is the field of Metabolic Engineering and successfully applied the system design method and optimization strategy of chemical engineering to biological systems thereby developing numerous core technologies for the biology based chemical industries.
Professor Lee is the founder of the System Metabolic Engineering and enabled the medical application of microorganisms by manipulating the metabolic pathways on a systems level in addition to making great progress in synthesizing various oil originated chemical materials using biology based, environmentally friends methods.
Professor Lee received the Marvin J. Johnson Award, Charles Thom Award, and has been appointed by the first Chairman of the Biotech Global Agenda Counsel of the World Economic Forum.
2012.09.22 View 13416