October 2025
Profs. Belfort and Cramer Present Bernard m. Gordon Prize Lecture at the NAE Annual Meeting
As recipients of the 2025 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for innovation in engineering and technology education, Prof. Georges Belfort and Prof. Steven Cramer presented the Gordon Prize Lecture at the National Academy of Engineering’s annual meeting in Washington D.C. on October 5-6. The lecture highlighted the innovative work in bioprocessing and engineering education that earned them the nation's most prestigious award in the field. See below for photos and slides from their talk. Watch the full lecture on the NAE's official YouTube channel - watch video.




September 2025
THOMAS NEUMAN and RIDDHI BANIK AWARDED 2025 founders award of excellence
We are happy to announce that Thomas Neuman and Riddhi Banik, graduate students in our research group, have received the Founders Award of Excellence — the highest honor presented at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s annual Honors Convocation.
This award recognizes their exceptional academic performance, dedication to mentoring undergraduate students, and the originality and imagination demonstrated in their groundbreaking research on mRNA purification, which has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals and presented at major international conferences.
🎉 Congratulations to Thomas Neuman and Riddhi Banik!

August 2025
Belfort group research presentations at the 17th Bioprocessing summit 2025
The Belfort research group featured in the Downstream Processing Division of the 17th Annual Bioprocessing Summit, contributing to discussions on emerging challenges and innovative solutions for mRNA purification.
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Keynote Lecture
Professor Belfort delivered a keynote address in the “Advances in Purification and Recovery” session entitled “Purifying mRNA Therapeutics: We Need A Paradigm Shift.” His lecture outlined the group’s research strategy for addressing purification bottlenecks by integrating convective transport with both ligand-based and ligand-free separation platforms. -
Oral Presentation
Dr. Hu, Postdoctoral Researcher, presented her work on “Peptide Affinity Ligands for Scalable mRNA Purification: Capturing the mRNA 5’ Cap.” This research introduces novel peptide ligands designed to enhance recovery and selectivity in therapeutic mRNA purification. -
Poster Presentations
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Riddhi Banik: “A Design Framework for Optimizing Spatial Arrangement in Affinity Membranes.”
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Thomas Neuman: “Tuning Hydrogen Bonds with Convection for Purifying mRNA: A Paradigm Shift.”
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Surya Karla: “Guiding the Design of Affinity Membranes for Improved Selectivity: Direct Force Measurements between mRNA and Peptide Ligands.”
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Ayushi Gupta Successfully Passes PhD Qualifying Exam
May 2025
Success in the lab and on the pitch
In the same week that his groundbreaking research titled "Tuning hydrogen bonds and electrostatics with convection for purifying mRNA: A paradigm shift" was accepted for publication in Science Advances, Thomas Neumann also led the RPI baseball team to victory in the Liberty League Championship as a pitching coach.
Balancing rigorous scientific research with the demands of coaching a competitive sports team is no small feat. Thomas' dual success is a testament to his discipline, vision, and leadership—whether he's analyzing breakthrough curves or pitcher stats. We are incredibly proud to have him as a colleague and teammate, both in the lab and on the field.


A MOTHER’S DAY SPECIAL: SEEKING WORK-LIFE BALANCE IN SCIENCE AND MOTHERHOOD
Marlene Belfort, renowned biochemist and UAlbany professor, is the author of a new memoir, Mommy, Can Boys Also be Doctors? A Message to Young Scientists and Other Humans (May 2025).
The memoir explores the often-daunting struggle to find happiness, meaning, and simply enough minutes in the day to be a leader in scientific research and — at the same time — a loving mother to three sons. She is extremely candid about her difficulties, including two lengthy bouts of major, late-onset depression, one in her fifties, the other in her seventies.
Belfort is a pioneer in the study of introns— non-coding segments that make up 25% of the human genome. Once dismissed as “junk” DNA, introns have been discovered to have a wide range of important functions. Belfort is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

April 2025
The National Academy of Engineering and RPI hosted the M. Gordon Prize ceremony on April 16 at 3 p.m. at the CBIS Howard P. Isermann Auditorium
During an awards ceremony at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) today, Chemical and Biological Engineering professors Georges Belfort, Ph.D., and Steven Cramer, Ph.D., received the 2025 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education given by the National Academy of Engineering.
The Gordon Prize, one of the most prestigious in the country for innovative education, recognizes novel approaches and concepts in education aimed at developing effective engineering leaders. Belfort and Cramer are recognized together “for advancing the state of the art in downstream bioprocessing and educating generations of industry and academic leaders who transformed and grew the biotechnology industry.”
The annual prize carries a $500,000 cash award, half granted to the recipients and the remainder granted to their institution to support the continued development, refinement, and dissemination of the recognized innovation.
“Professors Belfort and Cramer have educated and mentored nearly 200 current and former doctoral and postdoctoral students at RPI, developed innovative courses in biotechnology that engaged industry experts, and inspired students to push the boundaries of what is possible,” said Shekhar Garde, Ph.D., Thomas and Patricia Farino Dean of RPI’s School of Engineering. “Today these graduates are transforming the field of biotechnology through their leadership in industry and academia. This well-deserved award recognizes this impact.”

January 2025
Georges Belfort and Steven Cramer Awarded NAE's 2025 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced today that Georges Belfort and Steven M. Cramer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), have been named recipients of the 2025 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. The $500,000 annual prize, which recognizes new methods and concepts in education aimed at developing effective engineering leaders, will be jointly awarded to the two recipients and RPI. Belfort and Cramer are recognized “for advancing the state of the art in downstream bioprocessing and educating generations of industry and academic leaders who transformed and grew the biotechnology industry.”

November 2024
Thomas Neuman (PhD candidate) passes candidacy examination
Thomas Neuman, co-advised by Prof. Belfort and Prof. Karande has presented his research work titled "Convective Membrane Chromatography for the Purification of mRNA Biologics" and he has successfully cleared his candidacy examination.
October 2025
Belfort group research presentations at the AIChE 2024 Annual Meeting
At the AIChE Annual meeting in San Diego, members of the Belfort group gave the following presentations:
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Georges Belfort. Celebrating 200 years (RPI) and 110 years (CHME): Three Technical Highlights from an Academic Career.
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Riddhi Banik. Molecular Analysis of the Effect of Ligand Grafting Density on Membrane-based mRNA purification.
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Thomas Neumann. Advanced Purification of mRNA with Primary Amines for Removal of Double Stranded Species
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Mengyang Hu. Combinatorial Design of Peptides for ss-mRNA/ds-RNA Separation and Purification
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Surya Karla. Next Generation Macroporous Polymer membranes with Low Channeling and Improved Selectivity

Mengyang Hu's successful PhD thesis defense
Our collaborator, Mengyang Hu, advised by Prof. Karande has successfully defends her Ph. D. thesis titled "Rational and combinatorial design of peptides for therapeutic development".