Jin-Woo Kim, professor of biological and agricultural engineering, and Yanbin Li, Distinguished Professor of biological and agricultural engineering, have been named fellows by the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, or AIMBE.

According to its website, AIMBE's College of Fellows "consists of over 1,500 individuals who are the outstanding leaders, engineers, entrepreneurs, and innovators in medical and biological engineering," and fellows represent the top two percent of the medical and biological engineering community.

"We are proud of the recognition of two of our most prolific research faculty working on the cutting-edge of the interface of biology and engineering," said Lalit Verma, head of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. "This honor is well deserved as their interdisciplinary works are addressing some of the grand challenges facing our society."

Kim directs the Bio/Nano Technology Laboratory in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and the Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering. His primary research focus is in the area of bio/nano technology, or biologically inspired nanotechnology, which spans interdisciplinary fields of biological engineering, biomedical engineering, biology, chemistry, and nanotechnology. Specifically, his research aims to develop nanoscale bio/abio interfacing technology for programmable integrations of biomimetic advanced materials and devices for biological and biomedical applications.  He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and five book chapters, and he has two granted and one pending patents. Kim was recently elected as vice president of publications of the Nanotechnology Council of the Institute Electrical and Electronics Engineers and he is an IEEE Nanotechnology Distinguished Lecturer.

Li holds the Tyson Endowed Chair in Biosensing Engineering. His research focuses on biosensors and bioinstrumentation, microbial predictive modeling, quantitative risk assessment and food safety engineering. His research has applications in the screening of avian influenza in poultry, rapid detection of foodborne pathogens, predictive models of pathogenic bacteria in food products and risk assessment of microbial hazards in food systems. He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications and has received 12 patents.