Academic biography

Dr. Vijai Kumar Gupta holds a doctoral degree in Microbiology focusing on fungal biotechnology and bioengineering. He is currently an Associate Professor at the School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland, and a Principal Investigator at the DCU Life Science Institute (LSI).

Prior to joining DCU, he served as a Senior Fellow and Group Leader at the Center for Safe and Improved Foods & Biorefining and Advanced Materials Research Center, SRUC, Edinburgh, UK. Over the course of his career, Dr. Gupta has held research and academic positions at leading institutions worldwide, including MITS University (India), the University of Galway (Ireland), Tallinn Technical University/Estonian University of Life Sciences (Estonia), UM6P (Morocco), and SRUC (UK).

Dr. Gupta's research focuses on addressing key environmental and climate change challenges through the utilisation of renewable feedstocks and waste biomass for the sustainable production of biochemicals, biopolymers, biomaterials, and bioactive metabolites. His expertise spans microbial cell factories, industrially relevant enzymes, glycans/carbohydrates, proteins/peptides, amino acids, and bioactive compounds, all within the framework of green biotechnologies and circular bioeconomy-driven biorefineries.

He has been an integral part of both Irish and international academic and research consortia, including the Technology Centre for Biorefining and Bioenergy (TCBB), the Dairy Processing Technology Centre (DPTC), and the UK-Malaysia University Consortium (UKMUC). He is the advisor on the MycoFiber project and an Advisory Board member of the MainstreamBIO Project. Currently, he leads a few funded research projects, including Principal Investigator (PI) of the EPA-funded Refine-TEXT project, Academic PI of the Teagasc Walsh CELEBs project, Co-PI of the UNNC-RKE GreenTechPSProt project, Co-PI of the ALLRP project on PET plastic depolymerisation.

Dr. Gupta is a Fellow of several prestigious scientific societies and academies, including the Linnaean Society (UK), the Mycological Society of India, the Academy of Microbiological Sciences (India), and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (India) as a Pravasi Fellow.

He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters and holds two intellectual properties (IP). He serves on the editorial boards of a good few well-reputed journals in the areas of biorefinery research, microbial biotechnology, and cell engineering. Additionally, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the Biofuel Research Journal and an Associate Editor for BMC Microbiome and Critical Reviews in Biotechnology.

His research has been funded by leading EU and international funding agencies, including the European Commission Horizon Programme, UKRI-BBSRC, IBioIC, UK-China/Malaysia collaborations, Enterprise Ireland, EPA, and the Teagasc Walsh Programme. He also collaborates with industrial partners, including Cambond Ltd, AgriCycle Innovation Ltd, New Wave Foods, Bioconnect Ireland, Anuala Eco, and Marigot Ltd.