Hyeongmin Seo, assistant professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, was selected to contribute to the new Global Center for Sustainable Bioproducts.
Seo was awarded a $1.5 million grant to design high-performing microorganisms, build them by modifying their genes to support high-value products, test their effectiveness, and learn from the results to make improvements.
The grant is the University of Iowa’s portion of the Global Centers competition, in which the National Science Foundation and international partners invested $82 million to launch six global centers focused on advancing bioeconomy research to solve global challenges.
The Global Center for Sustainable Bioproducts will study how to turn organic waste into renewable and biodegradable plastics for use in important, high-quality products, such as environmental sensors.
