Champaign, Ill.—The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) announced the election of bioengineering professor and Donald Biggar Willett Faculty Scholar Ting Lu to the 2022 class of the College of Fellows for his outstanding contributions to the design, analysis, and engineering of gene circuits that control microbial cell functionalities. 

Lu is affiliated with the RIPE project at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, where he helps us improve the efficiency of plant transformation—a key step for engineering crops with improved photosynthesis. He is also associated with the department of physics, the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

Since 1991, AIMBE’s College of Fellows has paved the way for technological growth and advancements in the fields of medical and biological engineering. Their mission is to recognize excellence in those fields and give back through advocacy efforts and public policy initiatives that benefit the scientific community and society. 

The College of Fellows makes up more than 2,000 individuals who have distinguished themselves in their field of research, industrial practice, and/or education. The election process requires the nomination and reviewing of each candidate by the College of Fellows, which represents the top two percent of medical and biological engineers in the country. Nominees are then reviewed by the subcommittee catered to their professional expertise and accomplishments. Upon approval by the subcommittee, the nominee is then voted upon by the entire fellowship, with members earning lifelong membership. 

The formal induction ceremony will be held during AIMBE’s Annual Event on March 25, 2022. More information about the Event can be found here.

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Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) aims to improve photosynthesis to equip farmers worldwide with higher-yielding crops to ensure everyone has enough food to lead a healthy and productive life. RIPE is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, and the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office who are committed to ensuring Global Access and making the project’s technologies available to the farmers who need them the most.

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Adapted from a news release by the University of Illinois Department of Bioengineering.