Biomass, Biofuels, Biochemicals

Professor Ashok Pandey is currently Distinguished Scientist at the Centre for Innovation and Translational Research, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, India and Executive Director (Honorary) at the Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability – India. Formerly, he was Eminent Scientist at the Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing, Mohali and Chief Scientist & Head of Biotechnology Division and Centre for Biofuels at CSIR’s National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Trivandrum. His major research and technological development interests are industrial & environmental biotechnology and energy biosciences, focusing on biomass to biofuels & chemicals, waste to wealth & energy, industrial enzymes, etc. Professor Pandey is Adjunct/Visiting Professor/Scientist in universities in France, Brazil, Canada, China, Korea, South Africa, and Switzerland and also in several universities several in India. He has ~1425 publications/communications, which include 16 patents, 90 books, >700 papers and book chapters, etc with h index of 105 and ~48,800 citations (Goggle scholar). He has transferred several technologies to industries and has done industrial consultancy for about a dozen projects for Indian/international industries. Professor Pandey is the recipient of many national and international awards and honours, which include Highest Cited Researcher (Top 1% in the world), Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science (2020, 2019 & 2018); Top scientist in Biotechnology (#1 in India and #8 in the world), Stanford University world ranking (2020); Fellow, World Society of Sustainable Energy Technologies (2020); Fellow, Indian Chemical Society (2020); Distinguished Scientist, VDGOOD Professional Association, India (2020); Distinguished Professor of Eminence with global impact in the area of Biotechnology, Precious Cornerstone University, Nigeria (2020); IconSWM Life-time Achievement Award 2019, International Society for Solid Waste Management, KIIT, Bhubaneshwar, India (2019); Yonsei Outstanding Scholar, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea (2019); Life-Time Achievement Award from the Biotech Research Society, India (2018); Life-Time Achievement Award from Venus International Research Awards (2018), Most Outstanding Researcher Award from Career360 (2018), Life-Time Achievement Award from the International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (2017); Fellow, Royal Society of Biology, UK (2016); Felow, International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (2016); Academician of European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Austria (2015); Fellow, National Academy of Sciences, India (2012); Fellow, Association of Microbiologists of India (2008); Honorary Doctorate degree from Univesite Blaise Pascal, France (2007); Fellow, International Organization of Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2007); Thomson Scientific India Citation Laureate Award, USA (2006); Fellow, the Biotech Research Society, India (2005); UNESCO Professor (2000); Raman Research Fellowship Award, CSIR (1995); GBF, Germany and CNRS, France Fellowships (1992) and Young Scientist Award (1989), etc. Professor Pandey is Founder President of the Biotech Research Society, India (www.brsi.in); Founder & International Coordinator of International Forum on Industrial Bioprocesses, France (www.ifibiop.org), Chairman of the International Society for Energy, Environment & Sustainability (www.isees.in), Editor-in-chief of Bioresource Technology (http://ees.elsevier.com/bite/), Honorary Executive Advisor of Journal of Energy and Environmental Sustainability (www.jees.in), Journal of Systems Microbiology and Biomanufacturing (https://www.springer.com/journal/43393), Journal of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (http://neerijese.org/editorial-board/), Subject Editor, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, India (https://www.springer.com/life+sciences/journal/40011) and Associate Editor, Biologia – Section Cellular and Molecular Biology (https://www.springer.com/journal/11756/editors) and editorial board member of several international and Indian journals.

Distinguished Scientist, Centre for Innovation and Translational Research, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, India

Prof. Christian Larroche is Director of Polytech Clermont-Ferrand, a graduate school of engineering of University Clermont-Auvergne, France. He is also member of the research laboratory Institut Pascal and of the laboratory of excellence ImobS3 at the same university. He has strong research skills and expertise in the area of applied microbiology and biochemical engineering. He is author of 220 documents, including 114 articles, three patents, 15 book chapters and 24 co-editions of books or journal special issues. He is member of French Society for Process Engineering (SFGP), French Society of Biotechnology and European Federation of Chemical Engineering. He is administrator of IBA-IFIBiop and editor of Bioresource Technology.

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Laboratory, Institute Pascal, University Clermont Auvergne, Clermont Ferrand, France

Edgard Gnansounou is Professor of modelling and planning of Energy Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) where he is Director of the Bioenergy and Energy Planning Research Group. His current research works comprise techno-economic and environmental assessment of bio-refinery schemes based on conversion of agricultural residues. He is leading research projects in that field in several countries including Brazil, Colombia and South Africa. Edgard Gnansounou is credited with numerous papers in high impact scientific journals. He is member of the editorial board of Bioresource Technology. He graduated with a M.S. in Civil Engineering and Ph.D. in Energy Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. He was a visiting researcher at the Thayer College, Dartmouth School of Engineering with Professor Charles Wyman (USA), at Polytech of Clermont-Ferrand, University Blaise Pascal (France) and at the Center of Biofuels, the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Trivandrum (India). He was also a visiting Professor of the African University of Science of Technology (Abuja, Nigeria). He is a citizen of Benin (Africa) and Switzerland. Professor Ashok Pandey is Deputy Director at CSIR’s National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology at Trivandrum and heading the Centre for Biofuels and Biotechnology Division there. Professor Pandey’s research interests are on bio-based economy development (biomass-based biorefinery) for the production of fuels and chemicals. He has >1000 publications/communications, which include 14 patents & design copyright, 34 books, 100 book chapters, 380 original and review papers, etc with h index of 62 and >16,800 citation (Goggle scholar).

Professor, Energy Systems Modeling, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland; Professor, Energy Supply Chain, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco

Dr. Samir Kumar Khanal is a Professor of Biological Engineering at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Previously, he was a post-doctoral research associate and Research Assistant Professor at Iowa State University for 6 years. Dr. Khanal obtained Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with a focus in Environmental Biotechnology from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong in 2002. He obtained in M.S. in environmental engineering from Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand in 1997. Dr. Khanal is a leading researcher, internationally in the field of anaerobic digestion, waste-to-resources and environmental biotechnology. Dr. Khanal, to date, has published over 90 refereed papers in high quality international journals. He also delivered over 90 keynote/invited presentation internationally. In addition, he also wrote and published a book entitled “Anaerobic Biotechnology for Bioenergy Production: Principles and Applications” (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008). Dr. Khanal edited another book, as the Lead Editor, entitled “Bioenergy and Biofuel from Biowastes and Biomass” (American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2010). Both books have become the best-sellers in the respective field. Recently he also published a bioenergy textbook entitled Bioenergy: Principles and Application (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016). He has supervised 11 Ph.D., 16 M.S., 17 undergraduate and 12 high school students, 13 post-docs and 14 visiting scholars. Dr. Khanal is also an editorial board member of the highly prestigious international journal, Bioresource Technology and Korean Journal of Environmental Engineering. He is also a recipient of CTAHR Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research (2016), University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dr. Khanal is a professional engineer (environmental engineering) in the state of Iowa.

Professor, Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA; Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

Prof Claude-Gilles DUSSAP is graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toulouse in 1978. He did her PhD degree in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Department, focusing on development of bioreactor at the University Blaise Pascal (Clermont-Ferrand). He is presently head of the team Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in the Institut Pascal (University Blaise Pascal -- CNRS). He has been much involved in the analysis of the relationships, which exist between the physiological responses of microorganisms and bioreactors environment. This includes insightful investigation in metabolic engineering (metabolic fluxes distribution, control and regulation of metabolism) and thorough analysis of bioreactor performances regarding the mass, heat, light-energy transfer and mixing properties of reactors. He has a strong experience in mathematical modelling of biological kinetics, thermodynamical equilibrium properties of aqueous solutions and of reactor characteristics. He has a track record experience in the design and the mathematical modelling of MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) ecosystem, which is the biological life support system developed by European Spatial Agency (ESA) for long duration spatial missions. His main domain of expertise covers all the process engineering aspects of the bioreactors design, modelling, scale-up and control in relation with the food quality and nutritional properties of food recipes for spationauts. He has been in charge of the definition of Life Support issues in the European framework program AURORA. He is member of the evaluation committee of European Science Fondation. His main research activities concern Chemical engineering; Metabolic engineering: metabolic fluxes calculation; Mass and energy transfer modelling and assessment of coupling with metabolic limitations; Applied thermodynamics (modelling of equilibrium properties); and Thermokinetic modelling and application of Thermodynamic of Irreversible Processes to biotransformations.

His interests have been extended to bioenergy production processes and assessment of environmental impact of biotechnology processes regarding 2G and 3G biofuels. The results of these research works have been published in 150 papers. He has supervised 25 PhD students and 70 MSc lab works.

Head of the Chemical and Biochemical Engineering team, University Blaise Pascal, CNRS, France

Dr. Ricke received his B.S. degree in Animal Science (1979) an M.S. degree in Ruminant Nutrition (1982) from the Univ. of Illinois and his Ph.D. degree (1989) from the Univ. of Wisconsin with a co-major in Animal Science and Bacteriology. From 1989 to 1992 Dr. Ricke was a USDA-ARS postdoctorate in the Microbiology Department at North Carolina State Univ. He was at Texas A&M Univ. for 13 years and was a professor in the Poultry Science Dept. with joint appointments on the Food Science and Technology, Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences, and Nutrition Faculties and the Veterinary Pathobiology Dept. He has been honored in 2002 as a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Faculty Fellow. In 2005, he became the first holder of the new Wray Endowed Chair in Food Safety and Director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Arkansas. He is also a faculty member of the Dept. of Food Science and the Cellular and Molecular Graduate program.

Food Science Department, Division of Agriculture, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA