Congratulations to CPI’s Prof. Aditya M. Kunjapur for being awarded the 2021 Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence by The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The Langer prize awards an unrestricted grant of up to $100,000 “to enable creative researchers and engineering entrepreneurs in their early careers to pursue potentially game-changing innovations with transformative societal impact.” On November 8, Prof. Kunjapur will receive the award at the 2021 AIChE Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.
Prof. Kunjapur, co-leader of CPI’s Thrust 2, is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Delaware. The goal of his lab is to use synthetic biology approaches to investigate how microbes can use non-standard chemistry and unusual building blocks to generate products that exhibit enhanced functionality. Products of interest include fuels, chemicals, materials, and therapeutics.