Bioengineer Deem recognized for research excellence

Bioengineer Deem recognized for research excellence

Michael Deem

Bioengineering’s Michael W. Deem has been awarded the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ 2004 Allan P. Colburn Award, which recognizes excellence in publications by a young member of the institute.

“Michael’s seminal work in protein evolution is at the forefront of the interface between biology and materials science,” said Kyriacos Athanasiou, the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Bioengineering, who spearheaded Deem’s nomination. “He has been recognized as one of the most imaginative researchers of his generation — in any field — and he has amassed more than 900 citations in just eight years of independent research.”

Deem, the John W. Cox Professor in Biochemical and Genetic Engineering and Professor of Physics and Astronomy, specializes in statistical mechanics, specifically the computer simulation of complex molecular systems. He is interested in four main areas of research: the adaptive immune system response, cancer vaccines, protein structure and drug discovery, and zeolite structure and nucleation. His group uses both simulation and analytical statistical mechanics to attack these problems.

In many instances, his methods have opened the door for the investigation of increasingly tailored, microscopic properties of both solid-state and biological systems. Moreover, his pioneering techniques in atomic-level simulation also allow for the computation of both meso- and macroscopic properties of materials.

Deem received the Colburn Award at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ annual meeting in Austin in November. It includes a $5,000 prize.

“I am humbled and delighted by the Colburn Award,” Deem said. “I owe a debt of gratitude to supportive advisers and colleagues through the years.”

Among Deem’s many honors are the NSF CAREER Award (1997-2001); Northrop Grumman Outstanding Junior Faculty Research Award (1997); Top 100 Young Innovator, MIT’s Technology Review (November 1999); Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2000); and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2002).