William Chen WN
Professor
Nanyang Technological University
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
62 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637459
Email: WNChen@ntu.edu.sg
CURRENT POSITIONS:
2002 to date Full Professor (NTU)
2013 to date Director of Food Science & Technology Programme, NTU
2012 to date Director, Graduate Education Office, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute
(NEWRI), NTU
Academic Qualifications
1986-1989 PhD, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
1981-1985 B.Sc. (Hons), Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
My research is typically inter-disciplinary and collaborative. My current research is in the area of
metabolic and microbial engineering toward production of valuable products including food
ingredients, as well as environmental engineering for resource recovery and sustainable food
production. My research in converting food waste to high value food ingredients using microbial
engineering was covered in Future Forward by Channel News Asia (Jan 2015) and reported in
The Straits Times (June 2015 and Apr 2016).
PUBLICATIONS (5 most related out of 170+):
1. Lee J, Chen L, Cao B and Chen W*. (2016) Engineering Rhodosporidium toruloides with a membrane transporter facilitates production and separation of carotenoids and lipids in a biphasic culture. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol.100(2):869-77
2. Tang XL, Lee J, and Chen W*. (2015) Engineering the fatty acid metabolic pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for advanced biofuel production. Metabolic Engineering Communications 2: 58-66
3. Lee J, Chen LW, Shi JH, Trzcinski A, and Chen W*. (2014) Metabolomic profiling of Rhodosporidium toruloides grown on glycerol for carotenoids production during different growth phases. J. Agr. Food Chem. 62(41):10203-9
4. Chen LW, Lee JH, Zhang JH, and Chen W*. (2014) Enhancement of free fatty Acids production in S. cerevisiae by control of fatty acyl-CoA metabolism. Apple Microbiol Biotechnol., 98(15):6739-50
5. Tang XL, Feng HX, and Chen W*. (2013) Metabolic engineering for enhanced fatty acids synthesis in S. cerevisiae. Metabolic Engineering, 16C:95-102
PROFESIONAL RECOGNITION AND AWARDS:
1. Invited Plenary Speaker (on Microbial Engineering for Food Sustainability), The 27th Commonwealth Agriculture Conference, 2016
2. Fellow, US Food System Leadership Institute, USA, 2015-
3. Director, N4Technology Pte. Ltd. (Consulting Company), 2015-
4. Judge, DutchCham Winsemius Awards 2016 for Sustainability & Innovation, 2016
5. Member, Singapore Food Standard Committee, 2015-
6. Member of WG4, Inter-ministerial Committee on Food Security, 2014-
7. Member of Advisory Panel, and Organizing Committee, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases Asia Congress, by Oxford Global, 2014-
8. Member of Expert Panel, National Research Foundation, Singapore, 2013-
