Jay Bailey

James Edward Bailey (1944 – 9 May 2001), generally known as Jay Bailey, was a pioneer of biochemical engineering, particularly metabolic engineering. He was said to be "the most influential biochemical engineer of modern times".^[1] In a special issue of a journal dedicated to his work, the editor said "Jay was one of biochemical engineering’s most creative thinkers and spirited advocates, a true innovator who played an enormous role in establishing biochemical engineering as the dynamic discipline it is today".^[2] He studied chemical engineering at Rice University receiving a BA in 1966 and PhD in 1969. He worked for Shell then taught chemical engineering at the University of Houston and at Caltech before becoming Professor of Biotechnology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich in 1992.^[1] He died of cancer 9 May 2001.^[2]

He is commemorated in the James E. Bailey Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Biological Engineering,^[3] by the AIChE Society for Biological Engineering.

References

Further reading

• Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2002) Vol 79 issue 5: Special Issue: A Tribute to Jay Bailey (Wiley Interscience) Contains reprints of 6 important papers by Jay Bailey selected by the editors.
• Vassily Hatzimanikatis & James C. Liao (2002) Biotechnology and Bioengineering vol 79 no 5, pp 504–508 "A Memorial Review of Jay Bailey’s Contribution in Prokaryotic Metabolic Engineering" [1]
• K. F. Reardon et al. (2002) Biotechnology and Bioengineering vol 79 no 5, pp 484–489 "Jay Bailey as a Mentor - The Students' Perspective" [2]
• J. E. Bailey & D. F. Ollis (1986) Biochemical Engineering Fundamentals 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0070666016
• J. E. Bailey (2001) Nature Biotechnology 19 503-504 "Complex biology with no parameters" (published just after his death)