Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering will be receiving the 2012 Marvin J. Johnson Award at the American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting in California on March 27. This event  has added significance as Professor Lee is the first Asian recipient in the award’s history.

The Marvin J. Johnson Award was established in 1978 by ACS to recognize outstanding research contributions toward the advancement of microbial and biochemical technology. The winner is awarded $5,000, a plaque, and a chance to give an address on his research. Professor Lee will be delivering a speech on microorganism systems and metabolic engineering. Past recipients include world-renowned chemists such as David Perlman, James Bailey and Professor Daniel Wang from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Professor Lee, who founded systems metabolic engineering, has had remarkable achievements, such as manipulating the metabolic circuit of microorganisms to purify various crude-originated chemicals into environmentally-friendly substances. He is also known for developing strain strategies for efficient production of amino acids, polyester, nylon, biofuel and their raw materials.

Currently, Professor Lee is involved in system biology research under the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, the Global Frontier Biomass business and the Global Frontier Intelligent Bio-system construction and composition. He is also the chair of the Global Agenda Council, which announced last month the top ten list of emerging technologies for 2012. His lab has been recently appointed as the National Research Laboratory on Metabolic Engineering.