Pfeifer receives 2024 SUNY Chancellor's Award

The Chancellor's Awards acknowledge and provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and ongoing pursuit of excellence.

Blaine Pfeifer, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, has received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, which recognizes the work of those who engage actively in scholarly and creative pursuits beyond their teaching responsibilities.

He is a leader in the field of metabolic engineering in bacteria. Recently, his lab has been working on vaccine development research and creating delivery vehicles to enhance vaccine potency.

Pfeifer earned a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University and then held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Appointed as an assistant professor at Tufts University in 2004, he  held this position until joining UB as an associate professor in 2011. He was promoted to full professor in 2017.

Pfeifer has authored 115 articles and five book chapters, and has been awarded one U.S. patent. Supporters of his research include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Defense. He is currently a co-principal investigator on two NIH grants totaling more than $4.4 million.

A devoted teacher, Pfeifer has successfully guided 13 PhD students — including 11 at UB — and five postdoctoral associates. Four former postdoctoral associates now hold faculty positions in China, while one former PhD student is a professor at Rutgers University. Other PhD graduates work at Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novavax, AbbVie, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Pfeifer is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Adapted from UBNow