Biographical note

Vijai Kumar Gupta is currently working as Senior Fellow at Center for Safe and Improved Foods & Biorefining and Advanced Materials Research Center, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), Edinburgh, UK. Dr Gupta received his doctoral degree in Microbiology in 2009 from Dr RML Avadh University India, and the leading expert in the area of Biomass Valorisation, Microbial Bioprocess Biotechnologies, Bioactive Natural Products, and Environmental Sustainability.

He is the Secretary of the European Mycological Association and also the International Professor at IFST-China, Visiting Professor at SCBG-China; SZIU-Hungary; SHUATS-India. Dr Gupta is the Fellow of few international scientific societies including- Linnaean Society-UK; Mycological Society of India; Indian Mycological Association; Academy of Microbiological Sciences India; National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India and Member of Royal Society Biology, UK. He has 175 peer-reviewed publications, 33 book chapters and 39 books in his hands with author h-index 50, i10-index 173 with total 11K+ citations to-date. Also, he is the editor of few reputed journals including, Microbial Cell Factories, Scientific Reports, Microbiome, Biotechnology Advances and Critical Reviews in Biotechnology.

Maria Tuohy is the Principal Investigator and Head of the Molecular Glycobiotechnology Group, School of Natural Sciences, NUI, Galway, Ireland. Dr. Tuohy has a strong track record in Glycobiotechnology and Enzyme Biotechnology, with ~28 years’ experience in fungal biology and biotechnology. A special focus of the research is on developing enabling technology for bioconversion of terrestrial plants and algae for biorefinery and bioenergy applications. This research encompasses protein biotechnology, molecular enzymology, proteomics, fungal genetics, biology and genomics, fermentation, analytical methods in glycobiology and protein biochemistry, development of novel energy systems, as well as key analytical methods to measure and characterize novel bioactive compounds from microbial, plant and marine sources. Understanding fungal biodiversity and the relationships between fungi and other organisms (terrestrial plants and marine life) forms a central theme that underpins the research on developing fungi as cell factories for production of enzymes and bioactives of biotechnological relevance. Research to date has involved ongoing collaboration with industry. Dr. Tuohy is one of 5 PIs in the EI-IDA supported, industry-led, national Technology Centre for Biorefining and Bioenergy (TCBB) and more recently, TCBB Resource. Through TCBB is involved in the European Bio- based Industries Consortium (BIC) and was a PI on the Technological Innovation work package of an EU FP7 INTERREG IVB NWE Programme (‘ReNEW’), which was coordinated by The Queens University Belfast and involved a consortium of RTD, Industry and regional development organizations across NW Europe. Dr. Tuohy is also a co-PI on Pillar 5 of the recent national Dairy Processing Technology Centre (DPTC; €25m funding), since February 2015, and a collaborating PI in the recent SFI- Industry supported ‘Sustainable Energy & Fuel Efficiency Spoke’ in MaREI Research Centre. Dr. Tuohy & her group are members of the Energy Research Centre and Environmental Technologies PRA group, Ryan Institute, NUI Galway, Ireland. Dr. Tuohy has successfully mentored 33 PhD students to completion to-date, and was awarded a prestigious President’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2011-2012 by NUI Galway, Ireland.