J.H. David Wu

J.H. David Wu

J.H. David Wu received his MS and PhD degrees in Biochemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently a Professor of Chemical Engineering and of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Rochester. He has been doing research on biomass energy conversion for more than 30 years. After joining the University of Rochester, he developed a novel 3-D bone marrow culture system conducive to multilineal blood cell differentiation. The 3-D bone marrow culture system has been used as a tissue model for drug screening and toxicity tests in three NIH- or BARDA-funded research centers. His research group continues to study enzymatic biomass degradation, a limiting step in bioethanol fermentation. He directs a $1,75M DOE-funded consortium involving the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to develop biomolecular strategies toward biofuels production from biomass.

David Wu served as a Visiting Professor to the International Center for Biotechnology in Osaka University in 1995 and an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering of National Cheng-Kung University in 2005-2007. He served as the chair of the Division of Fermentation and Biotechnology of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in 1997/1998 and the Divisional Lecturer in 2002. He also served as an editor for Industrial Biotechnology, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, the Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, and the ASM Manual of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (2nd Edition). In addition, he served as a Scientific Advisor to the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology & Innovation (NYSTAR), a Program Co-Chair of the SIM Annual Meeting, and a Session Chair for the Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals. He participated in various review panels for DOE-GTL, NSF, DOE, NIH, and NREL on bioenergy and biomedical research. In particular, he served as a review panelist for the US DOE Bioenergy Research Centers and a plenary lecturer for a joint DOE-USDA meeting on bionergy. He received the SIM (Society for Industrial Microbiology) Waksman Outstanding Educator Award in 2005 and two Teaching Awards from the University of Rochester. He is currently a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, a Fellow of the Society for Industrial Microbiology, and a Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.