Time: 15:30, May 23, 2016

Venue: Room 102, No. 2 Laboratory Building

Speaker: Prof. Sridharan Govindachary
Universite de Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec Province, Canada

Title: What factors restrict the economics of microalgal biotechnologies? Perspectives from the Corporate experience of a phycologist.

Introduction to the Speaker: 

Dr. Sridharan Govindachary obtained his PhD degree in Botany with specialization in Phycology from University of Madras, India. He has more than thirty years of experience in photosynthesis research which mainly included the response of photosynthetic machinery under physiological stress. This subject matter specialism endowed Dr. Sridharan Govindachary to introduce the fundamental principles of the mass cultivation of microalgae in two large Corporate Level Research and Development programmes in India and Saudi Arabia. Apart, he was the recipient of Marie-Curie Senior Research Fellowship to develop microalgal culturing skills of the scientists associated with the European Union FP7 project “Marine algae as biomass for biofuels” (MABFUEL) from Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. In his last position as a Lead Scientist, Microalgae Technologies, Biorenewables and Recycling, Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation, he was involved in the evaluation of global algal companies for acquisition, joint ventures and joint development activities on technology developments. In the technology front, he developed strains portfolio, validated photobioreactors for algal biomass yields, in particular the newly isolated Redsea microalgal strains. He has published more than 20 peer reviewed papers in his research specialism during his stay at the Universite de Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec Province, Canada and functioned as reviewer for several photosynthesis and plant physiology journals.