Chang Lu, professor chemical engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been awarded the Fred W. Bull Professorship in Chemical Engineering by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The Fred W. Bull Professorship recognizes excellence in teaching and research in chemical engineering and recipients hold the professorship for a period of five years. It is named for a three-time alumnus in chemical engineering, who served on the Virginia Tech faculty from 1938 to 1977, including 13 years as dean of the graduate school. The professorship was created through gifts by alumni, as well as colleagues and friends of its namesake.

A member of the Virginia Tech faculty since 2010, Lu is internationally known for his research on microfluidic biotechnology, using fluid engineering principles and physical sciences to create enabling tools and techniques for studying and manipulating cell and molecular biology.

In his laboratory, Lu and his students develop small devices with micrometer features for examining molecular events inside cells. These devices promote high sensitivity and are particularly suited for studying a low number of cells.

In recent years, Lu’s research team received a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue his work in probing dynamics in protein-DNA interactions during disease development.

Lu received his bachelor's degree at Peking University and a master's degree and doctoral degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a post-doctoral research fellow in applied physics at Cornell University from 2002 until 2004.

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