Austrian Biotechnologist, grad. 1993 and Ph.D. 1996 Graz Univ. Technology. He has spent one year in Central America investigating upgrading of byproducts from oil seed plant processing. As an Erwin-Schroedinger Fellow, he developed enzyme based strategies for lignocellulose processing at Univ. British Columbia, Canada from 1996–1998. This work demonstrated the potential of enzymes to replace toxic chemicals and to lower energy consumption in polymer processing thereby reducing the negative environmental impact. Back at TU–Graz and later as a full professor at Univ. of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna and head of the Institute of Environmental Biotechnology he created a large network in enzyme based polymer processing. He participated in 26 European projects and coordinated 11 out of which. His achievements in the development of environmentally friendly processes resulted in various awards, 12 patents and more than 250 peer reviewed publications.

Contact by email │Visit its website

Head of the research group Biotechnology and Sustainable Chemistry at HES–SO Valais (Sion, Switzerland). Dr. Zinn is particularly interested in bioprocesses with prokaryotes and eukaryotes. His core activity is the tailor–made biosynthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoates and biopolymers in bacteria for industrial and medical applications. With respect to bioprocesses, he is designing and optimizing diverse cultivation methods (batch, fed–batch, chemostat, two–stage chemostat, biofilm chambers) and is familiar with up–scaling of bioprocesses from agar plate to pilot scale (300 L). State–of–the–art in process controlling (on–line analytics) has been developed in his group to assess the performance of cells and bioprocesses. Prof. Zinn has published more than 90 publications in peer reviewed journals, 10 book chapters and proceedings, and filed 4 patents.

Contact by email │Visit its website

M. Auxiliadora Prieto is Full Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Platform for Sustainable Plastics towards a Circular Economy-SusPlast (www.susplast-csic.org), gathering fourteen Institutes of CSIC with twenty-five multidisciplinary researcher groups devoted to implement plastic circularity. At the Biological Research Center-Margarita Salas (CIB-CSIC) she is the Head of the Polymer Biotechnology group as part of the Plant and Microbial Biotechnology Department. The group aims to explore and exploit the bacterial abilities to produce and degrade bio-based polymers (polyesters and bacterial cellulose) in order to contribute to global sustainability, using tools of molecular biology and metabolic engineering, combined with omic technologies and synthetic biology. Prof. Prieto has participated and coordinated many national and international projects and is the main inventor of nine patents, three of them licensed to bio-tech SMEs dedicated to the production of bio-plastics. Prof Prieto has published more than 90 international scientific papers and is Editor in Chief of Microbial Biotechnology

Contact by email │ Visit its website

Full Professor in Biological Water Treatment at the Department of Separation Science, LUT School of Engineering Science, LUT University, Finland. She got her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1999 from the University of Vigo.
She worked at the University of Santiago de Compostela as a Research Associate (2000) and at the University of Vigo as an Associate Professor (2000-2003) and an Isidro Parga Pondal Senior Research Fellow (2004).
Then, she was granted with a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship and moved to Rovira i Virgili University (2004-2008). In 2008, she received the I3 Professor from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education to the recognition of an outstanding research activity.
In 2009 she was granted with an Ikerbasque Professorship and joined the Technology Centre Ceit-IK4 (2009-2019).
Her research work involves the cultivation of microorganisms (submerged and solid-state fermentation), production of industrially and/or biotechnologically interesting metabolites, bioprocess optimization, enzyme technology, biodegradation of xenobiotic compounds, bioreactor design and wastewater treatment.
Other research interests are the reutilization of lignocellulosic wastes , lignin degradation and the recovery of valuable compounds from wastewater.
She has published more than 150 international papers in outstanding journals (h index 44), 77 communications at both national and international conferences, 18 chapters in books and 2 books. She is also editor of several international journals and books.

Contact by email │ Visit its website

I am an Assistant Professor at School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.  My research focuses on elucidating the metabolism of bacteria, and using this knowledge and synthetic biology tools to exploit these bacteria to make high value products. I graduated with PhD (2012) from the University of Belgrade, Serbia. This was followed by postdoctoral research at Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Belgrade, Serbia, where I developed a biocatalyst based on recombinant whole cells for Michael-type formation of C-C bonds and synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant compounds.
In 2013 I moved to the University College Dublin where I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow under the direction of Prof Kevin O’Connor. I investigated metabolic pathways of microorganisms using proteomics, metabolomics, enzymatic assays and synthetic biology tools as a part of FP7 and H2020 projects. In 2019 I joined Bioeconomy Research Centre BiOrbic as a Research Fellow. I am currently an academic collaborator in BiOrbic, where I coordinate several research projects among BiOrbic PIs, PostDocs, PhD students, as well as designing projects proposed by industrial partners.

Contact by email │ Visit its website

Dr. Marija Mojicevic, has recently joined the Material Research Institute at AIT as part of the EU-China H2020 BioInnovation of a Circular Economy for Plastics (BioICEP) team. Marija completed her PhD in Biotechnology at the Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad, Serbia carrying out experimental work at the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia.
Marija has considerable experience in bioprocessing and bioproduct generation. As part of her Masters and Batchelor degree programs Marija has performed and monitored a range of biosynthetic studies on areas including xanthan gum production and wastewater treatment including their modeling and optimization.
The primary focus of Marija’s PhD research was isolation of novel Streptomyces spp., their characterization and assessment of secondary metabolite production coupled with the detection, structural characterization and identification of antifungal compounds and optimization of their biosynthesis. As part of the BioICEP team, Marija will lead the biocatalytic and microbial plastic digestion technology stream at AIT. This is an exciting new and cutting edge addition to AIT’s suite of plastics technologies and will be instrumental in keeping AIT at the forefront of developments within the rapidly evolving field of polymers and plastics.

Contact by email │Visit its website

Website: Laboratory for Microbial Molecular Genetics and Ecology

Austrian Biotechnologist, grad. 1993 and Ph.D. 1996 Graz Univ. Technology. He has spent one year in Central America investigating upgrading of byproducts from oil seed plant processing. As an Erwin-Schroedinger Fellow, he developed enzyme based strategies for lignocellulose processing at Univ. British Columbia, Canada from 1996–1998. This work demonstrated the potential of enzymes to replace toxic chemicals and to lower energy consumption in polymer processing thereby reducing the negative environmental impact. Back at TU–Graz and later as a full professor at Univ. of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna and head of the Institute of Environmental Biotechnology he created a large network in enzyme based polymer processing. He participated in 26 European projects and coordinated 11 out of which. His achievements in the development of environmentally friendly processes resulted in various awards, 12 patents and more than 250 peer reviewed publications.

Contact by email

Visit its website

Head of the research group Biotechnology and Sustainable Chemistry at HES–SO Valais (Sion, Switzerland). Dr. Zinn is particularly interested in bioprocesses with prokaryotes and eukaryotes. His core activity is the tailor–made biosynthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoates and biopolymers in bacteria for industrial and medical applications. With respect to bioprocesses, he is designing and optimizing diverse cultivation methods (batch, fed–batch, chemostat, two–stage chemostat, biofilm chambers) and is familiar with up–scaling of bioprocesses from agar plate to pilot scale (300 L). State–of–the–art in process controlling (on–line analytics) has been developed in his group to assess the performance of cells and bioprocesses. Prof. Zinn has published more than 90 publications in peer reviewed journals, 10 book chapters and proceedings, and filed 4 patents.

Contact by email

Visit its website

Visit its website