Penn State professor receives 2020 International Metabolic Engineering Award

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The International Metabolic Engineering Society (IMES) has recognized Costas D. Maranas, the Donald B. Broughton Professor of Chemical Engineering at Penn State, with the 2020 International Metabolic Engineering Award. 

The award, presented every two years by the IMES, recognizes an outstanding career contributor to the field of metabolic engineering. The IMES is a community within the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Society for Biological Engineering.

Maranas is being honored for his contributions to the application of algorithmic and optimization techniques for the reconstruction, analysis and redesign of metabolic networks and strain design. An example of this is a study published in the Journal of American Institute of Chemical Engineers regarding the use of computer models to help food scientists design processes and growth media that produce environmentally friendly lab-cultured meat at scales suitable for commercialization.

“It’s great to see Costas recognized with this prestigious international award,” said Philip Savage, head of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Walter L. Robb Family Endowed Chair. “He is a global leader and highly sought after as a collaborator in computational metabolic engineering.”

Maranas has contributed over 200 publications, including the textbook "Optimization Methods in Metabolic Networks "(Wiley, 2016). He serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals; is a member of advisory/steering committees for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory and the biological database EcoCyc; is the Use-Inspired Research Lead in the Department of Energy’s Center for Bioenergy Innovation Center; and is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He received the Allan P. Colburn Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member of AIChE in 2002, the Outstanding Young Investigator Award of the Computing and Systems Technology AIChE Division in 2006, the S.V. Sotirchos Lectureship at the Sixth Panhellenic Chemical Engineering Conference in 2007, the Penn State Engineering Alumni Society Premier Research Award in 2016 and the Penn State Outstanding Research Award in 2012. 

Most recently, he was elected a fellow of the AIChE.

The award presentation and an associated lecture was scheduled to happen during the IMES-sponsored Metabolic Engineering XIII conference, July 12–16, 2020, in Honolulu, Hawaii. However, due to concerns raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference is postponed until July of 2021.