ChE alumnus Terry Papoutsakis (MSChE '77, PhD '80) elected to NAE
Purdue Chemical Engineering alumnus Eleftherios (Terry) Papoutsakis (MSChE '77, PhD '80) has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for his “contributions to metabolic engineering, especially the industrial biotechnology of Clostridia, and to biomanufacturing of therapeutic proteins.”
Papoutsakis is the Eugene du Pont Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware. He is one of 83 new members and 16 foreign members in the 2018 class, which will be formally inducted in a ceremony at the NAE Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 30.
As a doctoral student at Purdue, Papoutsakis was advised by Dr. Doraiswami Ramkrishna, the Harry Creighton Peffer Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering.
“Obviously, I am incredibly proud of Terry,” said Ramkrishna. “Professor Henry Lim was his advisor for his master's degree, which he completed in the biological area. When I arrived at Purdue, Terry wanted to switch to something distinctly mathematical and sought me for an advisor. I was ready to take him on if Professor Lim agreed to be a joint advisor, which he did.”
Ramkrishna mentioned that Papoutsakis did well as a PhD student, and the citations on the papers they published in the early 1980s continue today. “Out of concern for whether a young academic would prosper with continuing in an area that was a bit abstract, I had advised him to switch back to the more popular biological area, which he did,” explained Ramkrishna. “He has clearly performed spectacularly. I see this as a joint influence on Terry by Henry (Lim) and me.”
Papoutsakis received the Outstanding Chemical Engineer award from Purdue Chemical Engineering in 1997.
Eleftherios (Terry) Papoutsakis is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), American Chemical Society (ACS), American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and a founding fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE). He also has received numerous awards, including the American Chemical Society E.V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, the DIC Wang Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering, the James E. Bailey Award for Biological Engineering, the International Metabolic Engineering Award, the Elmer Gaden Award, and the American Chemical Society James M. Van Lanen Distinguished Service Award.
He has more than 275 publications and over 11,000 total citations. He has published two books and also holds twelve patents. Learn more about Eleftherios (Terry) Papoutsakis at https://www.dbi.udel.edu/biographies/eleftherios-terry-papoutsakis.
Read the University of Delaware news release about Papoutsakis here.
About the National Academy of Engineering: There are currently 2,293 total U.S. memberships and 262 foreign members. Academy membership honors those who have distinguished themselves in business and academic management, in technical positions, as university faculty, and as leaders in government and private engineering organizations. View the entire list of new members at https://www.nae.edu/178117.aspx.