Jonathan Dordick, the Howard P. Isermann ’42 professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer, has been named the new director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. Dordick has been with RPI for a decade and plans to use his 22 years of research experience and entrepreneurship to continue to expand the reputation and research funding for the Biotech Center.
Dordick received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and chemistry from Brandeis University and his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Biochemical Engineering. In 1987, he joined the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the University of Iowa. He was promoted to associate professor in 1991, to full professor in 1994, and served as department chair from 1995-1998.
Dordick’s research interests encompass the areas of enzyme technology and polymer chemistry. This includes enzymatic catalysis under extreme conditions, enzymes in the synthesis and modification of polymeric materials, combinatorial biocatalysis for drug discovery and polymer synthesis, and the generation of biocatalysts and biomimetics with unique activities and selectivities.
He is highly active in the biotechnology community, serving as chairman of the division of biochemical technology of the American Chemical Society in 1992, and presently serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards for several biotechnology companies. Dordick is a co-founder of EnzyMed, Inc., a pharmaceutical and agrochemical discovery company. He has published 118 papers and is an inventor or co-inventor on 14 patents.
Dordick describes his job as “maintaining the operation.” Research grants from National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and Department of Defense must match university codes, while facilities such as the nuclear magnetic resonator must break even. Dordick describes the Biotech Center as an “intellectual enterprise” whose broad vision is to apply faculty-based research in areas such as high-level therapeutics, regenerative medicine, bio-based energy, and other critical areas in which discoveries will lead to monumental changes. He wants to bring more interdisciplinary research into the building and looks at the Curtis R. Priem ’82 Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center as an opportunity for collaboration. Dordick thinks that the visualization capabilities that might arise from EMPAC will have a huge educational component, which will allow for better communication with the public, to ultimately help people appreciate and understand the importance of research centers like the Biotech Center. He imagines these visualizing capabilities helping to facilitate data computing in applications.
Moreover, Dordick wishes to increase undergraduate research, as “this building is mainly for the students.” While many graduate students already take advantage of the environment, Dordick wants to extend this opportunity to more undergraduates, as classroom learning is not always enough; he thinks every student should learn the scientific method firsthand in the laboratory. When asked about any expanding departments in the Biotech, Dordick responded that he is looking towards developing an animal testing laboratory, yet there are several challenges in place that need to be overcome. It is “quite expensive to set up the funding for an animal testing lab,” and the ethics involved make the job harder.
