Christopher E. Lawson

Assistant Professor/Principal Investigator
Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry

Google Scholar | CV

Postdoc, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 2020–2021

Ph.D. Environmental Engineering (Microbiology Minor), University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2019

M.A.Sc. Environmental Engineering, University of British Columbia, 2014

B.A.Sc., Civil Engineering (Environmental Option), University of British Columbia, 2010

Research Interests: microbiome engineering, systems biology, synthetic biology, microbial ecology, machine learning, biological waste treatment, resource recovery, environmental biotechnology.

Dr. Lawson’s research focuses on harnessing the metabolic processes of anaerobic microbiomes for sustainable wastewater treatment and the production of renewable bioenergy and bioproducts from waste resources. He is an expert in developing systems and synthetic biology approaches to understand and engineer the metabolism of microbial communities (“microbiomes”). Dr. Lawson’s most recent work focuses on integrating automation, synthetic biology, and machine learning to biologically produce high-value chemicals from renewable feedstocks (e.g. lignocellulose, wastes) using engineered microbiomes. He also develops state-of-the-art metabolomic and metaproteomic approaches to quantifying metabolic interactions and fluxes in microbial communities.

Dr. Lawson is an emerging leader in the field of environmental biotechnology and microbiome engineering. His research accomplishments have been recognized by the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award and the W. Wesley Eckenfelder Graduate Research Award by the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), as well as the Canham Graduate Studies Scholarship from the Water Environment Federation (WEF).

Awards

  • ISME/IWA BioCluster Rising Star Award (2022)
  • Jacobs Engineering Group/AEESP Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award (2020)
  • W. Wesley Eckenfelder Graduate Research Award (2019)
  • WEF Canham Graduate Studies Scholarship (2018)
  • NSERC Post-Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral (2014)

Memberships

  • International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME)
  • International Water Association (IWA)
  • American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
  • Water Environment Federation (WEF)
  • Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors (AEESP)