Dr. Lu-Kwang Ju receives nearly one million dollars of federal research support for his work this academic year. The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded $82,263 to study microaerobic metabolism using luminescence techniques and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded $911,000 to study coupling cellulase fermentation with in situ foam fractionation.

As an Educator, Dr. Luke Ju, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, views his research as an integral component in imparting new knowledge to students and to society as a whole. Engineering, he says, is vital in that it provides a means of mass production in delivering that newfound knowledge to the people.

"It is a given that research creates new knowledge that will eventually benefit society as a whole," Ju said. "From an engineering point of view, we study and develop the means of transforming that knowledge so that it will reach ordinary people." Dr. Ju’s research centers on the cellular activity or organisms from biochemical / bioprocess engineering and environmental bioengineering standpoints.

In the biochemical / bioprocess engineering realm, among the areas he is studying the production of cyanobacterial gas vesicles for 02/CO2 transfer in cell cultivation and other medical applications and the application of microbial anaerobic respiration to produce biological materials.

In the environmental bioengineering arena, Dr. Ju is monitoring the biological wastewater and sludge digestion processes and the biodegradation of petroleum contaminants.

His work has not gone unnoticed either. Dr. Ju has generated more than $1.5 million research funding for the University. His primary support is the National Science Foundation, US Department of Agriculture, NASA, and the State of Ohio; however he has also received financial backing from the Enviroquip, Inc. in Austin, Texas; BioChem Technology, Inc. in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; and Renewed Energy in Warrensville Heights, Ohio.

Dr. Ju holds a patent in compositions and methods relating to the production, isolation and modification of gas vesicles (2000) and has two patents pending in the production of biological materials by anaerobic respiration (filed 1999) and methods to maximize production of biological products by active non-growing cells (disclosure filed 2000).

In the classroom, Dr. Ju teaches Chemical Engineering Computations, Material and Energy Balances, Chemical Engineering Laboratory, Bioseparations, and Special Topics in Biochemical Engineering.

Dr. Ju said his students play a vital role in his research success. "The quality of graduate students is the number one factor to our research program. They determine the fate of the projects," he said. "All my students have to perform laboratory experiments. Their understanding of and enthusiasm to the research dictate the quality and quantity of experimental results achievable. I have been blessed with many good students since I joined The University of Akron. "Besides graduate students, I typically have 3-5 undergraduate students working in my group for their design projects or honors projects."

Dr. Ju earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering in 1980 from the National Taiwan University and his master’s and doctorate in Chemical Engineering from State University of New York at Buffalo in 1985 and 1988, respectively. He joined The University of Akron in 1990 as an assistant professor. Five years later, he was promoted to associate professor, a position he held until 2000 when he was promoted to professor.

Prior to the University, Dr. Ju worked as a senior research engineer for BioChem Technology, Inc., where he studied the use of liquid carriers in tissue culture for aeration and was involved in the on-line monitoring and control of wastewater treatment processes and the development of liquid membrane emulsions in cell culture.

Ju is a member of the Executive Committee for Ohio Bioprocess Research Consortium as well as the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Society for Microbiology. Ju was the recipient of the 2001 College of Engineering's Outstanding Researcher Award and in 1997, he received the NASA-ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship.  In 1996, he was named Favorite Faculty Member by the Omicron Delta Kappa and Mortar Board honorary societies and in 1989, he won the NASA Tech Brief Award.

Dr. Ju maintains an active consulting service to industry. Currently he is working with Enviroquip, which is sponsoring his work on advanced biological wastewater treatment and biosolids digestion. The company has arranged several national and regional workshops in Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Texas and California, to publicize their research results.

Dr. Ju is also a consultant for Ecopetrol. In the past, he has consulted for Kimberly-Clark Corp., The Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, Inc., Becton Dickinson & Company, Renewed Energy and BioChem Technology, Inc.

He is the author of 54 publications and seven proceedings and has participated in 15 invited lectures, seminars, and workshops and 37 conference presentations.

Dr. Ju and his wife, Fiona, live in West Akron with their two daughters.