2024 Award Recipients

Charles Porter Award

Phoenix BioConsulting

Dr. Neal Connors is an industrial microbiologist with three decades of experience in the field of bioprocess development. He has been an active member of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology for several years serving as President, Director, program chair for the Society’s Annual Meeting and Fermentation Technology Meeting, committee member, and editorial board member for the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Neal has been a leader in the biotech field for over 30 years, and a contributing author on numerous peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, patents, and conference abstracts. He started his career at Merck & Co and rose to the level of Senior Investigator where he was involved in a number of diverse bioprocess development projects including the commercialization of CANCIDAS®, a first-in-class natural product antifungal antibiotic.

Neal went on to start Phoenix BioConsulting and has served as an independent consultant for several years working with dozens of small- and mid-sized companies commercializing bioprocess-based technologies.In addition, he was a Founder and CTO of Kalion, Inc., an industrial biotech start-up and winner of the 2019 EPA Green Chemistry Challenge. Most recently, Neal was the Head of Bioprocess Development for Curie Co where he was responsible for successfully developing, implementing, and scaling-up Curie Co’s platform bioprocesses.

Dr. Connors received his PhD in Microbiology from The Ohio State University and his BS in Biology from Norwich University.

Charles Thom Award

Cornell Institute of Biotechnology

Matthew P. DeLisa is the William L. Lewis Professor of Engineering in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University and also the Director of the Cornell Institute of Biotechnology. His research focuses on understanding and controlling the molecular mechanisms underlying protein biogenesis — folding and assembly, membrane translocation and post-translational modifications — in the complex environment of a living cell. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1996; a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2001; and did postdoctoral work at the University of Texas-Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering. DeLisa joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University in 2003.

DeLisa has received a number of honorific distinctions and prestigious awards for his accomplishments in research including the American Chemical Society (ACS) BIOT Division Marvin J. Johnson Award, ACS BIOT Young Investigator Award, Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award, Biotechnology and Bioengineering Daniel I.C. Wang Award, Biotechnology Progress Award for Excellence in Biological Engineering Publication, City & State New York “Life Sciences Power 50”, Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award, MIT Technology Review TR35 Award (Top 35 Young Innovators under the age of 35), NSF CAREER Award, NYSTAR Distinguished Faculty Award, and NYSTAR Watson Young Investigator Award. He is an elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and in recent years was selected to serve on the IDA/DARPA Defense Science Study Group (DSSG) and the National Academies Committee on Innovative Technologies to Advance Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.

Early Career Award

Purdue University

Betsy was born and raised in Greenville, MS. She attended Rhodes College, where she obtained her B.S. in chemistry in 2010. While in Memphis, she did undergraduate research with Dr. Philip Potter at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on the discovery and development of specific carboxylesterase inhibitors for the amelioration of the dose limiting toxicity of the anticancer agent irinotecan. She conducted graduate research with Prof. Paul Hergenrother at the UIUC. While there, she discovered the mechanism of the selective anticancer natural product, deoxynyboquinone, and developed derivatives with improved solubility and tolerability. She also studied the mechanism of deoxynybomycin, a natural product antibiotic with specific activity against fluoroquinolone resistant bacteria, and developed more soluble derivatives. After obtaining her Ph.D. in 2015, she joined the laboratory of Prof. William Metcalf in Microbiology at UIUC. During her postdoctoral studies, she worked on a new method of identifying novel natural products called metabologenomics as well as studying the biosynthesis of phosphonate containing natural products. Betsy started her laboratory in the Departments of Chemistry and Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Purdue University in the Fall of 2018. In her lab, research focuses on the identification of novel bioactive natural products from cryptic bacterial biosynthetic gene clusters as leads for challenging-to-treat diseases such as antibiotic resistant bacteria. Additionally, she studies the unique and challenging chemistries performed by natural product biosynthetic enzymes and develops the enzymes as biocatalysts.

SIMB Fellowship Status

Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI)

Jay Keasling is the Philomathia Distinguished Professor of Alternative Energy at the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Chief Executive Officer of the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). Dr. Keasling’s research focuses on metabolic engineering of microorganisms for environmentally friendly synthesis of drugs, chemicals, and fuels. Keasling received a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology from the University of Nebraska and M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and did post-doctoral research in biochemistry at Stanford University. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Keasling has published over 550 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has over 75 issued patents. Keasling has won numerous awards. Keasling is the founder of Amyris, LS9, Lygos, Napigen, Demetrix, Maple Bio, Apertor Pharma, Zero Acre Farms, Cyklos Materials, BioMia, and ResVita Bio.

SIMB Fellowship Status

DOE Joint Genome Institute

Dr. Mouncey joined the DOE Joint Genome Institute in March 2017 as the fourth Director in its 20-year history. Dr. Mouncey has a wealth of research and managerial experience from almost 20 years in the Industrial Biotechnology private sector, as well as research expertise in secondary metabolites and synthetic biology. Dr. Mouncey has a long-standing interest in microbial genetics that started with his education and carried forward into his roles as a senior research scientist at Roche Vitamins, Inc. in New Jersey and DSM Nutritional Products in Switzerland, and as Bioengineering and Bioprocessing R&D Director and Leader at Dow AgroSciences in Indianapolis. During his time in industry, Dr. Mouncey directed R&D teams that focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel production organisms and fermentation processes for vitamins, insecticides, fungicides, platform chemicals, cosmetics and new crop traits. Dr. Mouncey has successfully built integrated and highly effective multi-disciplinary teams, and today, focuses on continuing to build and position JGI as a leading integrative and collaborative genome science user facility. In addition to serving as JGI Director, Dr. Mouncey leads the Secondary Metabolite Science Program at the JGI, and he is also on the leadership team of the National Microbiome Data Collaborative. Dr. Mouncey also served as President of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology 2022-2023.

SIMB Fellowship Status

SRI International

Kristien Mortelmans has been a member of SIMB for more than 50 years. She is a Senior Microbiologist, Emeritus, in the Biosciences Division of SRI International, formerly Stanford Research Institute, in Menlo Park, California. She has been an SRI employee for 47 years. She became a student member of SIM(B) in 1969 when she had transferred as a Junior to Stanford University from De Anza Community College in Cupertino, California, with an Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Arts. She decided to major in medical microbiology at Stanford University. One day when she was walking through the hallway of the Medical Microbiology Department, she saw a notice from SIM on the wall asking students to become a member of the Society. She had never heard about industrial microbiology. To become a student member, it would cost $3. Then she thought, $3 is not a lot of money and then, you never know. Ever since that time SIM(B) has had a major impact on her life.

In 1971 she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in medical microbiology during which time she enjoyed receiving and reading SIM News. Then she was accepted in the Ph.D. program at Stanford University and received her Ph.D. degree in 1975. still enjoying receiving and reading SIM News. Her research that involved working with Salmonella typhimurium strains and mutagenesis enhancing plasmids using ultraviolet light resulted in the isolation of plasmid pKM101 (her initials). This plasmid was introduced into several S. typhimurium strains in the laboratory of Professor Bruce Ames at the University of California in Berkeley. These strains are still used on a worldwide basis using the Ames microsomal mutagenicity assay (Ames test) to screen chemicals for causing mutations. In 1976 she started a postdoc at the Medical School at Stanford working with mammalian cells from patients with Xeroderma pigmentosum that were exposed to ultraviolet light. These individuals have a high degree of skin cancer due to exposure to sun light. She still enjoyed reading SIM News.

In 1976 she was looking for a permanent job and called Dr. Bruce Ames asking him where in the Bay Area the Ames test was being performed. He said, Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, about 3 miles from the Stanford University campus. She had an appointment over there and was immediately offered a job because of plasmid pKM101. She was Director of the Microbiology Program and was involved in running the Ames test for nearly 20 years. She received multiple government and commercial contracts with a staff up to 15 technicians. She then decided to move out of management and became the in-house microbiologist a position she still enjoys today. This gives her the opportunity to collaborate with researchers throughout the sciences field at SRI as well as with consulting groups and engineering programs. This resulted in many publications and presentations. In 2000 she received the SRI Fellowship award for outstanding scientific and technical accomplishments.

SIM(B) slowly but surely became part of her life when she attended the first annual meeting in 1984 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Since then, she attended most if not all annual meetings. Somehow her name became associated with SIM News because she had submitted photos and other artwork for the cover of SIM News that were appropriate for feature articles. When she was asked in 1992 if she would be interested in becoming Editor-in-Chief of SIM News she immediately accepted. She was Editor-in-Chief from 1992 through 2001. During that time, she was also elected Director (1995-1997) and President (2000-2001). She has been an Associate Editor of SIMB News from 2001 and is still serving in that position today. She is also Chair of the Elections Committee (2020-2026). She also was awarded the Charles Porter Award in 2002 for exceptional service and dedication to the Society.

Waksman Outstanding Teaching Award

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Melanie R. Mormile is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Missouri Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) in Rolla, Missouri. She began her career at Missouri S&T in 1999 as an assistant professor. Prior to joining MO S&T, she held post-doctoral fellowships with Drs. Jim Fredrickson and Brent Peyton at the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL). She earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Oklahoma, M.S. in Biological Sciences at the University of Louisville, and her B.S. in Biological Sciences at the University of Cincinnati.

Mormile has studied many topics in environmental microbiology with a specific focus on extremophilic bacteria and the environments they are found in. She held two patents on biohydrogen production from cellulosic materials and one on the production of propanediol from waste glycerol, all under alkaline and saline conditions. She engages students from high school level to Ph.D.-level in her research. Most of her research students have landed in their desired careers. She teaches courses that range from General Biology for freshmen non-majors to graduate-level courses such as Bioremediation and Geomicrobiology. Mormile has also served as the main faculty advisor for the Mars Rover Design Team (MRDT) of Missouri S&T since its inception in 2012. In addition to her teaching, research, and administrative activities at Missouri S&T, Mormile has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the SIMB News for the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (2019-2024).

Diversity Travel Award

The University of California – Berkeley

Cawthon is a first year PhD student studying Chemical Engineering in the Keasling Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to graduate school, he received his bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in the spring of 2023. His research projects and interests are in leveraging biology towards sustainable energy production. At Berkeley, he works to use metabolic engineering towards production of various chemicals that are valuable in energy and chemical industries.

Diversity Travel Award

Princeton University

Allison Tang is a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in Chemical and Biological Engineering in the lab of Professor José Avalos at Princeton University. Her research focuses on engineering proteins to target metabolic enzymes and boost chemical production. She earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Caltech in 2019. She is interested in developing scalable, sustainable manufacturing processes using biological tools.