W. H. Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gregory Stephanopoulos was born in Kalamata, Greece, in 1950. Since 2006, he is the holder of the W. H. Dow Professorship of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He attended High School in Kalamata (Paralia HS), a city in the south of the Peloponnese, and Athens (6th HS of Athens). In the last year of high school he won First Prize of the Greek Mathematical Society. In 1968, he was admitted to the School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA or Polytechnion) after successful testing at the Panhellenic University Entrance Examination. He graduated from NTUA in 1973 with the Diploma of Chemical Engineering. Throughout his undergraduate studies he maintained a scholarship from the State Scholarship Foundation (IKY) and was recognized, upon graduation, with the “CHRISOVERGION” Award from NTUA for achieving the highest overall GPA in the ChE graduating class and a Prize from the Technical Chamber of Greece for achieving the 2nd highest GPA in the University.
After graduation from NTUA he continued his studies in the United States. In 1975 he obtained his M.S. from the University of Florida and, three years later, his Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota. Professors Arnold Fredrickson and Rutherford Aris were his doctoral mentors. His professional career started in 1978 as Assistant Professor at Caltech where he was promoted in 1984 to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure. In 1985, Gregory Stephanopoulos moved to MIT as Professor of Chemical Engineering. He was Bayer Professor between 2000 and 2006, when he was appointed to the W. H. Dow Professorship of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. From 1990 to 1997 he served as Associate Director of the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center (BPEC) at MIT. Since 1997, he has served as Lecturer on Surgery and Bioengineering for Harvard University at the Massachusetts General Hospital, while he spent the academic year 2006-2007 as Visiting Professor at the ETH Zurich.
The professional career of Professor Stephanopoulos is underscored by his prolific scientific production: he is the co-author of a book and the editor of five other titles, while he has written or co-authored more than 430 papers and is co-inventor of more than 50 patents. During his tenure, he has trained and supervised more than 150 Graduate and Post-Doctoral students; he presently serves on the Editorial Boards of 12 scientific journals (see CV for full list) and currently serves as Editor-in Chief of Metabolic Engineering (since 2003) and co-Editor–in-Chief of Current Opinion in Biotechnology (since 2010). Throughout his career he has served on the Advisory Boards of numerous Panels and Scientific Advisory Boards of government, academic and industrial organizations. Presently he serves on the Advisory Board of the Swiss NSF for National Centers for Competence in Research (NCCR), the Delft Process Technology Institute (DPTI), the University of Illinois Institute for Genomic Biology, the Board of Directors of the International Chemical Reaction Engineering (ISCRE), and the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB).
The importance of his outstanding research was highlighted in 30 named Lectureships (see below). During the years, Professor Stephanopoulos received many honors (see full list below). Among others, in 2010 he received the George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in Industrial Biotechnology and the ACS E. V. Murphree Award. From AIChE he received the R.H. Wilhelm Award (2001), the Founders award (2007) and the William Walker Award (2014). In 2011 he received the Eni Prize in Renewable and non-Conventional Energy, in 2013 the John Fritz Medal from the American Association of Engineering Societies, in 2016 the Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels and in 2017 the Novozymes Award for Excellence in Biochemical and Chemical Engineering. Professor Stephanopoulos was elected in 2003 to the US National Academy of Engineering and in 2011 as Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens. He has Honorary degrees from the Danish Technical University and NTUA. In 2016 he served as President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Professor Stephanopoulos currently works in Cambridge, at the Department of Chemical Engineering of MIT, focusing on biotechnology, specifically metabolic and biochemical engineering. He is the Director of the Metabolic Engineering Laboratory. His group of approximately 20 graduate students and post-docs conducts research on various projects aiming at the development of biological production routes to chemical products and biofuels. Another program is investigating cancer as metabolic disease. More information about on-going research can be found in the research page of this site.
SPECIAL HONORS
2017 Novozymes Award for Excellence in Biochemical and Chemical Engineering
2016 Eric and Sheila Samson $1M Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels for Transportation
2016 Honorary degree from the National Technical University of Athens
2015 Elected President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers
2014 William H. Walker Award of AIChE for Excellence in Contributions to Chemical Engineering Literature
2013 American Academy of Microbiology, Elected Fellow
2013 John Fritz Medal of the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES)
2012 Siegfried Prize from University of Zurich-ETH Zurich for outstanding accomplishments on process chemistry
2012 Elected Fellow of the AIChE
2011 Election as Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens
2011 Eni Prize in Renewable and non-Conventional Energy
2011 Inaugural award from Biotechnology Progress for outstanding publications in biotechnology
2010 George Washington Carver Award, BIO (Biotech Industry Organization)
2010 ACS E.V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
2009 HBA-USA: Aristoteles Award for excellence in Biosciences research
2009 Commonwealth of Massachusetts American-Hellenic Excellence Award
2009 Amgen Award in Biochemical Engineering
2007 AIChE Founders Award
2007 Charles Thom Award, Society for Industrial Microbiology
2006 Visiting Professor, ETH Zurich, D-CHAB department
2005 Elected fellow of AAAS
2005 Doctor technices honoris causa, Technical University of Denmark, DTU, Lyngby
2003 Elected Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
2002 Elected Director of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers
2002 Merck Award in Metabolic Engineering
2001 AIChE R.H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering
2001 Marvin J. Johnson Award of the American Chemical Society
2000 Ray W. Fahien Distinguished Alumni Award, Dept. of Chem. Eng., University of Florida
1997: AIChE FPBE Division Award
1993: Best Paper Award, Computers and Chemical Engineering
1992: Founding Fellow, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering
1992: Visiting Professor, Osaka University
1992: AIChE FPBE Division Chairman
1984: Presidential Young Investigator Award
1984: Technical Achievement Award, South. California AIChE
1982: Dreyfus Foundation Teacher Scholar Award
1982: Excellence in Teaching Award, Caltech
1973 “CHRISOVERGION” Award from the National Technical Univ. of Athens for the highest overall GPA in the ChE graduating class
1973 Technical Chamber of Greece Award for the 2nd highest GPA in the University
1968-73 National Scholarships Foundation Scholar in all undergraduate years
1968 First Prize of the Greek Mathematical Society in a Panhellenic Competitive Math Exam
LECTURESHIPS
2017 Kroc Memorial Lecture, University of Chicago
2016 Abbott Lectures, RPI
2016 Henry A. McGee Lecture in Chemical and Life Science Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
2015 Beiyang Lecture, Tianjin University, China
2014 Alkiviades C. Payatakes Memorial Lecture, FORTH Institute, Patra, Greece, December, 15, 2014.
2014 Lacey Lectures, Caltech, Chemical Engineering
2014 Luojia Lecture, Wuhan University
2014 University of Western Ontario Distinguished Lecture
2013 Giulio Natta Inaugural Lectureship, Milano Polytechnico
2013 Mason Lectures, Stanford University
2012 University of Massachusetts Alumni Lectures
2012 KAIST Global Distinguished Lecturer
2012 Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture, Louisiana State University
2011 Paul C. Wilber Distinguished Lecture, Rice University
2010 Pigford Distinguished Lecture, University of Delaware
2009 McFerrin Distinguished Lecturer, Texas A&M University
2009 Ashland Distinguished Lecturer, University of Kentucky
2009 Distinguished Lectureship, Imperial College, London, UK
2009 Robb Lectureship, Pennsylvania State University
2008 Inaugural Founders Lectureship, First Ken Nobe Lecture, UCLA
2008 Academy Lectures, University of Missouri-Rolla
2007 Lowrie Lectures, Ohio State University
2005 Amundson Lectures, University of Guadalajara
2005 McCabe Lectureship, North Carolina State University
2004 Lumpkin Lecture, U. Maryland Baltimore County
2004 Ralph Peck Annual Memorial Lecture, Illinois Institute of Technology
2004 Cary Lectures, Georgia Institute of Technology
2004 Holtz Lectures, Johns Hopkins University
2004 Centennial Lecture, Clarkson University
2003 Kelly Lectures, Purdue University, 2003
2003 Distinguished Lecturer, University of Utah
2003 Patten Distinguished Lecture, University of Colorado
2003 Joe and Essie Smith Distinguished Lectureship, U.C. Davis
2002 A.G. Fredrickson Lecture, University of Minnesota
2002 Merck Distinguished Lectureship, Rutgers University
2002 Distinguished Lecturer, University of Virginia
1996 Inaugural Bayer Lectureship, UC Berkeley
1991 Merck Lecturer U.P.R.
1987 Marchon Lectureship, Newcastle University