書報討論專題演講Department Seminar

Hsiang-Yu Wang Ph.D. Associate Professor 
Department of Engineering and System Science, NTHU, Taiwan
Application of microfluidic techniques on the production of bioenergy by microorganisms
2019/3/7(四)，下午3:30-5:30
交大工程五館B1國際會議廳

Abstract

Compared with energy crops, such as corn and sugarcane, microorganisms are considered more efficient and productive resources for producing energy owing to their high growth rate and energy density. In recent years, the optimization of microorganism culture for producing massive amount of energy is under intensive investigation but the progress is slow due to the tedious and time-consuming processes. Rapid and high-throughput methods are in urgent needs to advance the bioenergy production using microorganisms. The aims of our research focus on developing such techniques based on microfluidics to reduce the costs in time and labor as well as to improve the accuracy and the throughput of analysis. The microfluidic techniques are classified into 3 modules: cell separation and purification, culture optimization, and cellular contents detection. Several examples in each module and their applications on enhancing the production of lipids, which can be chemically transformed into biodiesel, are introduced.

Speaker Biography

Professor Hsiang-Yu Angie Wang is devoted to the development of multi-scale bioenergy systems, microfluidics, and high-throughput analysis. She graduated with a Ph.D. from the School of Chemical Engineering in Purdue University, USA in 2007. In 2008, she participated in a NIH funded research in Brigham Young University, USA as a postdoctoral researcher. She then worked as an assistant professor in National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan since 2009 and became an associate professor in 2013. She has been an associate professor in the Department of Engineering and System Science in National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan since 2014. She has published more than 30 papers in renowned and high-impact journals and her work has been cited for more than 600 times. She has been working with several top researchers in the areas of bioenergy and bio refinery to develop optical or microfluidic techniques for rapid detection and selection of microorganisms and operation parameters. Her research group has also developed micro-scale or lab-scale detection platforms for accessing the information of energy producing process in a timely manner. Her academic achievements have led to the award of “The Rising Star of Engineering School in National Cheng Kung University” (成功大學工學院明日之星研究獎) in 2013.