Shashi Kant Bhatia: Konkuk University, South Korea
Dr. Shashi Kant Bhatia is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea, and has more than ten years of experience in the area of biowastes valorization into bioplastic, bioenergy, and biochemicals. Dr. Bhatia has contributed extensively to the industrial press and served as an editorial board member of Sustainability, Energies, and Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery journal, and as Associate Editor of Frontier of Microbiology, Microbial Cell Factories, and PLOS One journal. He has published more than 150 research and review articles on industrial biotechnology, bioenergy production, biomaterial, biotransformation, microbial fermentation, and enzyme technology in international scientific peer-reviewed journals, edited 4 books, and holds 12 international patents. He was selected to the Top 2% Scientist List of Stanford University. He earned an M.Sc and a Ph.D. in biotechnology at Himachal Pradesh University (India). He has qualified JNU combined biotechnology entrance, DBT-JRF, GATE, CSIR exams. Dr. Bhatia has worked as a Brain Pool Post Doc Fellow at Konkuk University (2014–2016), South Korea.
Vinod Kumar: Cranfield University, UK
Dr Vinod Kumar (VK) is a Senior Lecturer in Microbial Technology and Biorefining at Cranfield University, UK. VK has longstanding skills in microbial fermentation (fungal, yeast, and bacterial) and extensive experience in ‘state-of-the-art’ techniques of bioprocess optimization, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology. He has research experience of 12 years post Ph.D. and is actively involved in multidimensional projects aiming at the development of low-cost sustainable bioprocesses for metabolites production from renewable sources. The current research activities of VK are at nexus of Metabolic/Pathway Engineering, Bioprocessing, and Waste Valorisation. His work leads to the development of low carbon biomanufacturing technologies for the overproduction of platform/commodity chemicals and fuels from carbonaceous agro-industrial waste streams rich in renewable carbon, thus enabling a circular economy approach. VK has published 100+ articles in peer-reviewed journals with >3300 citations and h-index of 31. He holds Visiting Faculty position for Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and IIT Roorkee, India. He is “Pool of Experts” for BBSRC, UK, and Advisor for Commonwealth Scholarships/Fellowships. He serves as Associate Editor for three peer-reviewed Journals: 3 Biotech; Food and Bioproducts Processing; Microbial Cell Factories and also part of the Editorial Board of Chemical Engineering Journal.
Amulya Kotamraju: Dublin City University, Ireland
Dr. Amulya Kotamraju is currently working as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Grain4lLab project, funded by the SFI Future Innovator Prize program at Dublin City University. Dr. Amulya obtained her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT), Hyderabad, India. Her doctoral research majorly focused on the production of two important bio-based products i.e., polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) a biodegradable polymer, and bio-based succinic acid, a platform chemical from renewable feedstocks, with a significant scope to contribute for the circular bio-based economy. Her primary objective was to gain in depth understanding of both the production processes and possible integrations for the development of a waste biorefinery. She also worked on the production of biodegradable composite materials. Her interest lies in identifying microbial strains and possibilities that could arise from such microbial mechanisms for the development of sustainable technologies for resource recovery and value-added products synthesis to be implemented in the biobased circular economy. Prior to her doctoral research work, she worked in 2 EU-India funded projects and one DBT funded project. In 2016, she was provided funding from the Department of Science and Technology under the Women Scientists A (WOS-A) scheme to independently learn, explore and handle an end-to-end research project on ‘Sustainable bioprocess for the production of high-value succinic acid from municipal waste’ that was successfully completed in June 2019. Dr. Amulya’s research has resulted in 13 publications in SCI journals, 10 review articles, and 5 book chapters with an h-index of 17, a total citation of 1190, and a cumulative impact factor of 223.7. She also attended many national and international conferences and presented her scientific work and won 4 ‘best poster awards’ and 3 ‘best oral presentation awards’. In December 2021, she was awarded the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Best Ph.D. Thesis Award-2022 and a cash prize of 10,000 INR by the International Society for Energy Environment and Sustainability (ISEES).
