Microbial Biosurfactants and their Environmental and Industrial Applications

Professor Ibrahim M. BANAT, Professor of Microbial Biotechnology at the University of Ulster, UK. He has more than 30 years' experience in both academic and research institutions in Europe and internationally and has several active collaborative projects supported by the EU and international academic and industrial establishments. Research interests include biosurfactant and bio-actives production and their potential utilization in medicine, pharmaceutical applications, environmental oil pollution control and hydrocarbon polluted land bioremediation and microbial enhanced oil recovery. He has also worked on molecular and cell biology of thermophilic Geobacilli bacteria and bioethanol fermentation. To date (June 2018) he has more than 300 publications (H-Index 68) and 22,500 citations.

Dr. Rengathavasi Thavasi, R&D Manager - Fermentation Technology at Jeneil Biotech Inc., Saukville, WI, USA. He has 17 years' research experience in microbial biosurfactants, bioemulsifiers, biopesticides, antimicrobials, natural flavor chemicals, probiotics and their industrial and environmental applications. He has filed three U.S. Patents, published 23 research articles in refereed journals and written five book chapters. Thavasi has been awarded five USA-NSF-SBIR research grants (as a principal investigator) for his biosurfactant derived biopesticides and biosurfactant research. He is serving as a reviewer for peer review journals and research grant proposals.