Bentley Named to Rabin Professorship

From E@M Magazine, Spring 2003

William E. Bentley has been named the first Herbert Rabin Distinguished Professor in Engineering. Internationally recognized for his work, he brings extensive experience in the area of bioengineering to his new position. His outstanding record of technical contributions to the field includes work in metabolic engineering, modeling of genetic circuits, cellular stress responses and E. coli protein expression, bioreactor design and optimization, and insect cell and larvae/baculovirus expression systems.

His current research integrates mathematical modeling and molecular biology to improve production processes of human pharmaceuticals, enabling drugs to be produced more efficiently and cost effectively.

Bentley joined the university in 1989, with a joint appointment between the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Center for Agricultural Biotechnology. He has served as the director of the Bioprocess Scale-up Facility of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute since 1994.

The author of 92 publications, Bentley serves on the editorial board of Biotechnology Letters, Kluwer Academic Publishers. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He currently serves as chair of the Biochemical Technology Division of the American Chemical Society. He has received numerous honors, including the Society of Industrial Microbiology's Schering-Plough Young Investigator Award; the Dow Outstanding Faculty Award; the Washington Academy of Sciences Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Sciences Award; and the Allan C. Davis Medal as the Outstanding Young Engineer in the state of Maryland.

He received his B.S. and M.S. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, all in chemical engineering.

The Rabin Professorship, established by an anonymous donor, supports new and emerging fields in engineering and honors Professor Herbert Rabin’s dedicated service to the engineering profession and industry. Rabin, is the associate dean for research and director of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute.

Published May 1, 2003