James Edward Bailey generally known as Jay Bailey, was a pioneer of biochemical engineering

Biochemical engineering

Biochemical engineering is a branch of chemical engineering or biological engineering that mainly deals with the design and construction of unit processes that involve biological organisms or molecules, such as bioreactors...

, particularly metabolic engineering

Metabolic engineering

Metabolic engineering is the practice of optimizing genetic and regulatory processes within cells to increase the cells' production of a certain substance. These processes are chemical networks that use a series of biochemical reactions and enzymes that allow cells to convert raw materials into...

. He was said to be "the most influential biochemical engineer of modern times". 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". He studied chemical engineering

Chemical engineering

Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...

 at Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

 receiving a BA in 1966 and PhD in 1969. He worked for Shell

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

 then taught chemical engineering at the University of Houston

University of Houston

The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...

 and at Caltech before becoming Professor of Biotechnology

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...

 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

ETH Zurich

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....

 (ETH) in Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

 in 1992. He died of cancer 9 May 2001.

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

American Institute of Chemical Engineers

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers is a professional organization for chemical engineers.AIChE was established in 1908 with the purpose of establishing chemical engineers as a profession independent from chemists and mechanical engineers.As of 2010, AIChE had over 40,000 members,...

Society for Biological Engineering.

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" http://systemsbiology.northwestern.edu/papers/Hatzimanikatis-B&B-2002-A_Memorial_Review.pdf
• K. F. Reardon et al. (2002) Biotechnology and Bioengineering vol 79 no 5, pp 484–489 "Jay Bailey as a Mentor - The Students' Perspective" http://systemsbiology.northwestern.edu/papers/Reardon-B&B-2002-Jay_Bailey_As.pdf
• 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)