Course leader
Henk Noorman was trained as Chemical Engineer from Groningen University (NL). He obtained a PhD in Bioprocess Technology from Delft University of Technology (NL, 1991), on microbal systems modeling. He became a post-doc fellow in a Nordic research consortium, and co-ordinated a fermentation scale-up project among academic groups in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. He then joined Gist-brocades and DSM in Delft (NL) and worked on fermentation development and implementation projects, mainly in the area of antibiotics and bio-based products. He also has been project manager for innovation projects, and received the DSM R&D Award 2010. Henk Noorman is currently working as Senior Science Fellow Bioprocess Technology in the DSM Biotechnology Center and involved in numerous projects in Industrial Biotechnology, Food Specialties, Anti-Infectives, and the Corporate Research Program. In addition he is honorary professor at Technical University Delft working on Bioprocess Design and Integration. Teaching activities include courses in Delft, Wageningen (NL), Brac (Croatia) and Shanghai (China).
Course board
Prof. Sef Heijnen
After his MSc studies in Chemical Engineering, Sef Heijnen worked at DSM (then: Gist Brocades) for 15 years and in this period he also completed his PhD thesis in bioprocess technology at Delft University of Technology. In 1988, he became full professor and group leader in Cell Systems Engineering within the Department of Biotechnology of Delft University of Technology. He has an impressive track record: he is (co-) author of over 400 scientific publications, has supervised nearly 60 PhD students and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He is recipient of several science and education awards. His research interests are (1) metabolic engineering and systems biology applied to industrial microbial processes using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Penicillium chrysogenum and Escherichia coli, (2) metabolome measurement and 13C-tracer analysis in steady state and dynamic conditions, and (3) thermodynamic and kinetic modelling of metabolism, fermentation design and scale-up and scale down of industrial processes. Prof. Heijnen teaches a wide variety of courses, and was elected at TU Delft’s 2003 ‘Leermeester’ (best lecturer).
Prof. Ruud Weusthuis
After studying Biology in Groningen (1984-1989) R. A. Weusthuis obtained his PhD in Microbial Biotechnology at the Delft University of Technology (1989-1994). He joined Wageningen University and Research and headed the Bioconversion group (2004-2008). In 2007 he started working at the Wageningen University, and is active as Associate Professor Microbial Biotechnology. He focuses on the design of breakthrough technologies for the production of chemicals by microorganisms, integrating reactor and cell engineering.
Guest lecturers
Jason S. Crater
Biotechnology Advisor & Consultant
Emeryville, CA USA
Jason has over 13 years of experience in industrial biotechnology working on developing, scaling, and deploying novel bioprocess technologies. He’s visited 20 countries and over 30 different fermentation facilities, spent over 2 full years abroad supporting technology deployment and scale-up efforts, and commercialized 5 different fermentation products. He currently provides advising and consulting services to various companies in the industrial biotech sector. Prior to starting his independent consulting business, he built and led Geltor’s Process Technology team in developing and commercializing new bioprocesses to manufacture animal-free, sustainable proteins for the Beauty & Personal Care and Food & Nutrition sectors. Prior to Geltor, he held several positions at Genomatica during his 10 years working on developing and scaling Genomatica’s portfolio of commodity and specialty fermentation products. Jason earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University. He also attended TU Delft’s Advanced Course in Bioprocess Design back in 2014!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-crater
Dr. Amit T. Deshmukh
Amit studied Chemical Engineering from 1996 to 2000 at the University of Pune, India. In 2005, he traveled to Germany to pursue MSc. in Chemical Engineering with specialization in Bio-chemical engineering at Technische Universität Dortmund. From 2008-2012, he did his PhD in the group of Prof. J.J. (Sef) Heijnen at the Delft University of Technology, Delft. During his PhD, he worked on elucidating in-vivo enzyme kinetics in P.chrysogenum. For last four years, he working as a lead scientist at DSM Biotechnology Center, Delft, carrying out R&D activities for industrial scale fermentation. His work involves scale up/down of fermentation processes, specifically for production of penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotics. He is also part of teaching activities that include courses in Delft (NL) and Shanghai (China).”
Prof. Michel Eppink
Synthon Biopharmaceuticals BV, Nijmegen and Bioprocess Engineering & Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Dr. Dirk Martens
Bioprocess Engineering, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Prof. René Wijffels
Bioprocess Engineering, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Dr. Liang Wu
DSM Biotechnology Centre, Delft, the Netherlands
Noelia Gudino
Genomatica Inc., San Diego, CA, USA
