Irvine : UCI Picks Chair of New Biochemical Program

Henry C. Lim, a member of Purdue University’s chemical engineering faculty, has been named chair of the UC Irvine School of Engineering’s new biochemical engineering program.

UCI officials said that the biochemical engineering section will be the first such formal program in the nation and that it will be open only to graduate students.

As head of the new program, Lim will oversee curriculum development and faculty recruitment, UCI officials said. He also will continue to teach and do research work.

Lim, who has a doctorate from Northwestern University, specializes in bioreactors, kinetics and recombinant cell reactors. He was a process development engineer with Pfizer Inc. in Groton, Conn., before joining the faculty at Indiana’s Purdue University in 1966. He won Purdue’s Shreve Prize for Outstanding Teacher in 1973, 1975 and 1977.

William A. Sirignano, dean of the UCI School of Engineering, said the new program has great potential for human betterment and said: “I feel that Dr. Lim is the most qualified person in the country to serve as our founding chair.”