People
Susie Dai
Susie Dai, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry with a Biomedical Engineering certificate from Duke University. She completed postdoctoral training at Scripps Research Institute (Florida campus) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Our generation is facing daunting energy and environmental challenges. We need efficient, low cost, and minimum environmental footprint systems for chemical synthesis and pollutant elimination. Biological systems have evolved a balanced yet inefficient way to harness energy, and transform matter to perform all natural reactions. Innovations to accelerate mass transfer and reaction rates and supply enough energy and materials hold the key to creating sustainable alternatives to energy- and chemical-intensive processes.
The Dai lab integrates chemistry and biology to advance biosynthesis, bioremediation, and resource recovery. Current research focuses on:
- Integrate chemical catalysis (i.e., electrocatalysis) with synthetic biology to produce platform chemicals
- Develop chem/bio hybrid materials to empower microbiology for pollutant removal and resource recovery