On January 19, President Nam Pyo Suh announced that Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee, from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the founder of Systems Metabolic Engineering, will be attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland from January 25 to 29. WEF, otherwise known as the Davos Forum, is an event held annually in Switzerland that gathers heads of different businesses and political relations worldwide to discuss and share information on politics, economics and culture for the improvement of the global economy.

Professor Lee, along with top chairmen of chemical businesses from all over the world, will actively participate in the discussion regarding the future of chemical businesses and bio-based eco-friendly chemical substances as well as energy production. The discussion was held in Sunstar Park Hotel on January 26. Furthermore, as a member of the panel, he introduced and presided over the debate session topic “What if all antibiotics lose their effectiveness?” on January 27.

As chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies, Professor Lee and the council members summed up and organized all the opinions expressed by the world leaders in attendance and subsequently formulated a list of the “Top Ten Future Technologies,” which is to be announced mid-February.

Currently, Professor Lee is conducting a research that promotes the production of bio-based and eco-friendly chemical substances from crude oil at the level of microorganisms’ metabolic circuit systems. In recognition for his significant contributions to this area of research, Named Lecture presented him with an invitation on January 25. Named Lecture is a lecture program that invites prominent figures in specialized fields to lecture at renowned American colleges once a year.

He gave a lecture on the topic “Systems Metabolic Engineering of Microorganisms for Chemicals, Fields and Materials” at the University of Texas at Austin on January 31, “Systems Metabolic Engineering: Strategies and Practical Applications” at Rice University on February 1, “Strategies for Metabolic Engineering of Microorganisms” at the University of Delaware on February 3 and “Systems Metabolic Engineering” at Pennsylvania State University on February 6.

“An invitation from Named Lecture signifies recognition for one’s academic contributions as a scientist or an engineer,” commented Professor Lee. “It is not only an honor for KAIST but for me personally as well.”

Copyright © The KAIST Herald Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution prohibited