Jixun Zhan Named New Head of Biological Engineering Department

The College of Engineering has announced that Professor Jixun Zhan will be the new head of the Department of Biological Engineering, effective immediately.

Zhan joined the department in 2008, teaching metabolic engineering and other general biological engineering courses. He has served in many advisory committees and has published 118 research articles. Zhan has also been serving as interim department head since March 2022.

“I am looking forward to continuing to work with all my colleagues to provide the best biological engineering education to the students, enhance research productivity and increase student enrollment,” Zhan said.

Zhan received a bachelor’s and a master’s in fermentation engineering at Nanchang University and Tianjin University of Science and Technology, respectively. He also attained a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering at East China University of Science and Technology. He has earned $3.2 million in research expenditures for the university since his hiring.

“In the past year, the BE faculty and staff have worked together to create a positive and supportive environment, recruit students through various outreach activities, host the Intermountain Biological Engineering Conferences and hire two outstanding new faculty members,” Zhan said. “Our biological engineering students swept the major awards in the poster and bioethics essay competitions at the 2023 Institute of Biological Engineering National Conferences.”

Zhan is also a member of the American Chemical Society, Institute of Biological Engineering and many other organizations. Prior to joining Utah State, he was an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Los Angeles.