| Citation | Professor Sang Yup Lee is one of the most inspirational, creative and productive (bio)chemical engineers world-wide. He pioneered and established systems metabolic engineering, which integrates systems biology and synthetic biology with traditional metabolic engineering, for the design of novel microbial cell factories for the bio-based production of chemicals, fuels and materials from renewable non-food biomass. He created new biosystems for production of gasoline, diesel, amino acids, putrescine, cadaverine, succinic acid, glutaric acid, terephthalate, lactams, heme, methyl anthranilate, polylactate, poly(lactate-co-glycolate), and aromatic polyesters, either for the first time or characterized by exceptional yields. His outstanding contributions pave the way for replacement of petrochemicals by bio-based chemicals from renewables. |