Bernard Tao

Bernard Tao

Professor Emeritus, Agricultural & Biological Engineering/Food Science
Purdue University
Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering
225 South University Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2093
Office: ABE 2020

Research Areas

Bioprocessing, Bioproducts. Biofuels processing/separation, chemical synthesis/modification of biomaterials, synthesis of DNA-protein bioconjugates, bioproducts development.

Biography

Bernard Y. Tao is a Professor in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. He recently was elected Soybean Board Professor in Soybean Utilization. He teaches undergraduate courses in material balances, engineering computations, thermodynamics, biochemical reaction kinetics and engineering ethical issues. He has also taught graduate courses in protein chemistry and biological engineering. His research areas involve biocatalysis and the use of recombinant genetic mutagenesis to explore the modification of carbohydrate enzymes and biochemical conversion of natural materials, such as soybeans, to make industrial products. Dr. Tao brings a variety of perspectives from his industrial and academic experiences, having worked in such diverse technologies as diamond synthesis, novel foods development, recombinant enzyme biotechnology, and renewable resource utilization. In addition to numerous research and teaching publications, he has also written book chapters on recombinant genetic mutagenesis, natural biopolymers and biomass utilization technologies, as well as holding several patents in biomaterials utilization.

He is currently conducting research in post-synthetic recombinant genetic modification of plant lipids, development of polymer coatings from hydrophobic proteins, and on-line FTIR biosensor development for mammalian cell culture fermentation. He has served as the chair of Biochemical, Pharmaceutical and Foods Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, an executive board member of the ACS carbohydrate division, and is an associate editor for the Journal of Oil Chemists. He has given lectures and presentations at many national and international meetings, most recently in Malaysia, Brazil, Korea, China, Canada, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Russia.

Publication reprints available upon request or via https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Ub4dpjgAAAAJ&hl=en.