Profile of James C. Liao

Abstract

James Liao, President and Distinguished Research Fellow of Academia Sinica, is at the forefront of metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and systems biology. His work is focused on the redesign of metabolism for microbial synthesis of fuels and carbon assimilation. His achievements include direct conversion of carbon dioxide to biofuels through an electricity-driven microbial carbon fixing system, development of a biosynthetic pathway for condensation of methanol to ethanol without carbon loss, and generation of Escherichia coli strains that skirt traditional glycolytic pathways for sugar catabolism. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2015, Liao reports in his Inaugural Article an E. coli strain that functions as a platform for increasing ethanol yield from glucose by providing renewable hydrogen (1). The method could lead to efficient commercial production of renewable carbon-neutral biofuels. James Liao in his laboratory at Academia Sinica. Image courtesy of Chong-Sheng Liu (Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan). Liao was born in the late 1950s in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and spent much of his youth in Taipei. His parents were both trained as engineers, and inspired Liao’s lifelong interest in solving challenging problems of all kinds. He says, “Growing up in Taiwan, I developed an interest in fixing broken appliances and gadgets. This interest continues in my scientific career; now, I am trying to use science to solve problems.” From 1976 to 1980, Liao studied chemical engineering at National Taiwan University. After earning his bachelor of science degree, he performed 2 years of compulsory military service in Taiwan before beginning graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He first worked on biochemical reaction systems and was encouraged by his thesis advisor, Edwin Lightfoot, now deceased, to apply chemical engineering principles to his research. Lightfoot had spent many years investigating transport phenomena, which influence the cross-disciplinary fields that Liao found …