engineering

Gregory Stephanopoulos

Gregory Stephanopoulos is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gregory Stephanopoulos rather than just read about it. In short: Greg N. Stephanopoulos (born c. 1950) is an American chemical engineer and the Willard Henry Dow Professor in the department of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Key takeaways

Gregory Stephanopoulos belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Reference excerpt

Greg N. Stephanopoulos (born c. 1950) is an American chemical engineer and the Willard Henry Dow Professor in the department of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has worked at MIT, Caltech, and the University of Minnesota in the areas of biotechnology, bioinformatics, and metabolic engineering especially in the areas of bioprocessing for biochemical and biofuel production. Stephanopoulos is the author of over 400 scientific publications with more than 35,000 citations (h index = 97) as of April 2018. In addition, Greg has supervised more than 70 graduate students and 50 post-docs whose research has led to more than 50 patents. He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), a member of the National Academy of Engineering (2003), and received the ENI Prize on Renewable Energy 2011.

Early life and education He completed his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota in 1975, with advisors Arnold Fredrickson and Rutherford Aris on the topic of modeling of population dynamics. His thesis was published in 1978 with the title, "Mathematical Modelling of the Dynamics of Interacting Microbial Populations. Extinction Probabilities in a Stochastic Competition and Predation".

Career Stephanopoulos began his career as an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology in 1978. He was promoted to associate professor in 1978. In 1985, he was hired by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as professor of chemical engineering. During his time at MIT, he has held the following positions: associate director, Biotechnology Center (1990-1997), professor of the MIT-Harvard Division of Health Science and Technology - HST (2000–Present), Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (2000 - 2005), and the W. H. Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (2006–Present). From 2006 to 2007, he was a visiting professor at the Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering in Zürich, Switzerland. As noted in the citation for his ENI Prize, Stephanopoulos's research has addressed the advancement of multiple aspects bioengineering:

He is mostly renowned for his studies on the global transcription machinery engineering technology, concerning the reprogramming of the gene transcription of particular bacteria, in order to modify their microbial cells, increasing their efficiency in transformation of raw material in hydrocarbons. Until now, the best result concerns the increase in tolerance of microbial cultivations to the toxicity of several products, and the consequent, relevant increase of productiveness in biofuels.

Works

Books H. W. Blanch, E. T. Papoutsakis and Gregory Stephanopoulos, (eds.) Foundations of Biochemical Engineering, Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Biological System. ACS Symposium Series, 207 (1983). M. N. Karim and G. Stephanopoulos (eds.). Modelling and Control of Biotechnical Processes. IFAC Symposia Series No. 10, Proceedings of the 5th Int. Conf. of Computer App. in Ferm. Tech., Keystone, CO, 29 March - 2 April 1992, Pergamon Press (1992). G. Stephanopoulos (ed.), Bioprocessing, Vol. 3 of Biotechnology, H. J. Rehm, G. Reed, A. Puhler, P. Stadler (series eds.), VCH, Weinheim (1993). G. Stephanopoulos, Jens Nielsen, and A. Aristidou. Metabolic Engineering. Principles and Methodologies. Academic Press (1998). G. Stephanopoulos (ed.) Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Metabolic Engineering. Special Issue, Biotechnology & Bioengineering, Issues 2 & 3, (1998). Isidore Rigoutsos and G. Stephanopoulos (eds.), Systems Biology. Volume 1 and 2, Oxford University Press, (2006)

Journal articles Stephanopoulos has authored more than 400 journal articles on the topics of biotechnology, bioinformatics, and metabolic engineering. These include:

Gregory Stephanopoulos, R. Aris, A. G. Fredrickson. "A stochastic analysis of the growth of competing microbial populations in a continuous biochemical reactor", Mathematical Biosciences 45, 99-135, (1979). Gregory Stephanopoulos, R. Aris, A. G. Fredrickson. "The growth of competing microbial populations in a CSTR with periodically varying inputs", AIChE Journal 25, 863-872, (1979). G. Stephanopoulos, A. G. Fredrickson. ""Coexistence of Photosynthetic Microorganisms with Growth Rates Depending on the Spectral Quality of Light", Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 41, 525-542, (1979). G. Stephanopoulos, A. G. Fredrickson. "The Effect of Spatial Inhomogeneities on the Coexistence of Competing Microbial Populations", Biotechnology and Bioengineering 21, 1491-1498, (1979). Rahul Singhvi, Amit Kumar, Gabriel P. Lopez, Gregory N. Stephanopoulos, D. I. Wang, George M. Whitesides, Donald E. Ingber "Engineering cell shape and function", Science, 264(5159), 696-698, (1994). Hal Alper, Curt Fischer, Elke Nevoigt, Gregory Stephanopoulos. "Tuning genetic control through promoter engineering", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(36), 12678, (2005). Parayil Kumaran Ajikumar, Wen-Hai Xiao, Keith E. J. Tyo, Yong Wang, Fritz Simeon, Effendi Leonard, Oliver Mucha, Too Heng Phon, Blaine Pfeifer, Gregory Stephanopoulos. "Isoprenoid pathway optimization for Taxol precursor overproduction in Escherichia coli", Science, 330(6000), 70-74, (2010). Christian M Metallo, Paulo A. Gameiro, Eric L. Bell, Katherine R. Mattaini, Juanjuan Yang, Karsten Hiller, Christopher M Jewell, Zachary R Johnson, Darrell J. Irvine, Leonard Guarente, Joanne K. Kelleher, Matthew G. Vander Heiden, Othon Iliopoulos, Gregory Stephanopoulos. "Reductive glutamine metabolism by IDH1 mediates lipogenesis under hypoxia", Nature, 481(7381), 380, (2012).

Honors In 2003, Stephanopoulos was elected a member of the American National Academy of Engineering (NAE). His NAE election citation noted:

For pioneering contributions in defining and advancing metabolic engineering and for leadership in incorporating biology into chemical engineering research and education. Other awards and honors include:

AIChE R.H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering (2001) Elected to the National Academy of Engineering (2002) Elected Fellow of AAAS (2005) AIChE Founders Award (2007) Amgen Biochemical Engineering Award (2009) ENI Prize in Renewable and Non-Conventional Energy (2011) Elected Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology (2013) Elected President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2015)

References

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Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gregory Stephanopoulos

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gregory Stephanopoulos claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gregory Stephanopoulos before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gregory Stephanopoulos ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gregory Stephanopoulos

In research: Gregory Stephanopoulos appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gregory Stephanopoulos in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gregory Stephanopoulos is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950 births, American chemical engineers, American materials scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gregory Stephanopoulos outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gregory Stephanopoulos in 20 minutes

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Frequently asked questions

What is Gregory Stephanopoulos in simple terms?

Greg N. Stephanopoulos (born c. 1950) is an American chemical engineer and the Willard Henry Dow Professor in the department of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Why does Gregory Stephanopoulos matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gregory Stephanopoulos?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gregory Stephanopoulos.