Rate My Professor Jennifer Reed

Jennifer Reed was the Karen and William Monfre Professor and Harvey D. Spangler Faculty Scholar in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She joined the faculty in 2007 after earning her B.S. and Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, completing her doctorate in 2005 in the laboratory of Bernhard Palsson. Reed's research integrated computational and experimental methods to investigate microbial metabolism and regulation, developing constraint-based and kinetic models to predict metabolic capabilities, identify novel enzymes and regulatory interactions, and engineer microbes for biofuels production, bioremediation, and health-related applications. Her lab employed 13C metabolic flux analysis to quantify network activities and microbial community interactions, contributing significantly to systems biology and metabolic engineering.

Reed's distinguished career included tenure and promotion to associate professor in 2013 and full professor in 2018. She received the NSF CAREER Award in 2011, U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Award in 2012, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2013, Vilas Faculty Early Career Investigator and Research Investigator awards in 2014, Romnes Faculty Fellowship in 2017, and was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2016. Named a 'Scientist to Watch' by The Scientist magazine in 2013, she authored over 70 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, including 'OptORF: Optimal metabolic and regulatory perturbations for metabolic engineering' (2010), 'Shrinking the Metabolic Solution Space Using Experimental Datasets' (2012), and 'Constraint-based analysis of metabolic capacity of Salmonella typhimurium' (2009). As a leader in the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Reed mentored students, emphasizing their professional and personal growth, and her impact persists through awards established in her name, such as the Jennifer L. Reed Bioenergy Science Award.