Newswise — Kelvin Lee, the University of Delaware's Gore Professor of Chemical Engineering and Delaware Biotechnology Institute Faculty Fellow, has been appointed the new director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, effective Sept. 1, according to Mark Barteau, UD senior vice provost for research and strategic initiatives.
Lee replaces David Weir, who had directed DBI since its inception in 1998 until this year, when he was named director of the University's new Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships.
"We are very enthusiastic about the leadership that Kelvin Lee brings to DBI," Barteau said. "He is not only one of the top young researchers in the field, but gained important experience as director of the New York State Center for Life Science Enterprise and the Institute for Biotechnology and Life Science Technologies at Cornell before joining UD last year. I look forward to working with him to advance DBI as a key driver of our life science initiatives, and as a model for additional interdisciplinary research institutes to be developed as part of the University's strategic plan."
As director of DBI, Lee will lead an organization developed as a center of excellence in biotechnology and the life sciences through a partnership of government, academia and industry.
The mission of DBI, which is located adjacent to the University of Delaware campus off Wyoming Road in Newark, is to facilitate a biotechnology network of people and facilities to enhance existing academic and private sector research, catalyze unique cross-disciplinary research and education initiatives, and to foster the entrepreneurship that creates high-quality jobs.
Lee joined the UD faculty in 2007 from Cornell University, where he served as the Samuel C. and Nancy M. Fleming Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and as director of the Institute for Biotechnology and Life Science Technologies and also of the New York State Center for Life Science Enterprise.
Lee's research focuses on gene expression monitoring tools, such as mass spectrometry, for measuring protein expression relevant to the pharmaceutical and chemical industries and to human health, including studies on diagnosing Alzheimer's disease.
His research has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health and others.
He has published extensively in his field and has a patent issued to California Institute of Technology and three other patents filed or pending.
Among his honors, Lee has served as Distinguished Professor of the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research; received the Cornell provost's Ronay and Richard Menschel Award for Distinguished Scholarship; won a National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award; was named by the MIT Technology Review as one of the top 100 innovators in the world in business and technology; and has received teaching and other awards. He was an invited participant in the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in 2003.
Lee received his doctorate and a master's degree from the California Institute of Technology, and a bachelor's degree from Princeton University.
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