Keynote Speakers of ICBCE
Prof. Tatsuo Omata
Nagoya University Japan, Japan
Prof. Tatsuo Omata
obtained PhD from University of Tokyo in 1984. The title of his
thesis was "Isolation and characterization of the cytoplasmic and
thylakoid membranes from cyanobacteria (blue-green algae)". During
the next 25 years, he studied photosynthetic assimilation of CO2 and
NO3- by cyanobacteria, with emphasis on the transporters involved in
uptake of the substrates. He identified a HCO3- transporter (BCT1)
and a bispecific NO3-/NO2- transporter (NRT) on the cytoplasmic
membrane, and characterized the transcriptional regulators involved
in the CO2- and nitrogen-responsive expression of the transporters.
Using NRT-deficient mutant strains, he developed a simple method to
achieve slow, nitrogen-limited growth of the cells in batch
cultures, which can otherwise be achieved only in chemostat
cultures.
In 2010, he started a project to develop a biofuel-production system
using cyanobacteria. To achieve sustainable production of biofuels,
he points it essential to have the cells secrete the oily products
so that the energy required for oil extraction is saved. He thinks
it also essential to have a product-to-cell ratio (weight/weight) of
4 to attain an energy-profit ratio of >1. Aiming at the “milking”
production of biofuels using cyanobacteria, he and his coworkers
have been improving the genetic engineering method originally
reported by Liu et al. for free fatty acid (FFA) production in
Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. They chose Synechococcus elongatus PCC
7942 as the material since it was found to have an unusually high
capacity of fatty acid synthesis. To avoid severe photoinhibition
resulting from intracellular accumulation of FFA, the endogenous FFA
efflux pump of the cyanobacterium (RND1) was overexpressed and the
secreted FFA was removed from the culture medium. Also, cell growth
was minimized by nitrogen limitation to increase the per-cell yield
of FFA.
Prof. Omata's group, which includes the researchers from Nagoya
University, Chubu University, Saitama University, Kazusa DNA
Research Institute, and Taisei Corporation, have thus attained a FFA
yield of 0.43 g L-1 and the production rate of 1.8 mg L-1 h-1, with
a product-to-cell ratio of 0.9. In Sapporo, their latest results
will be presented and possible strategies to further improve the
method will be discussed.
Prof. Abdulnaser Sayma
City University of London, UK
Professor Sayma obtained BSc in Mechanical Engineering
with Distinction from Birzeit University in Palestine in
1987, MSc in Energy Technology from Salford University
in 1990 and PhD from UMIST in 1994. His thesis topic was
Finite Element model for dense gas dispersion in the
atmosphere. He joined the Aeronautics department at
Imperial College London in 1994 on EPSRC funded project
as a research assistant where he worked on the
development of an external aerodynamic compressible flow
model introducing boundary layer grids and viscous
effects in the Euler solver.
He Joined the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial
College London in February 1994 as a Research Assistant
working on the development of unstructured grid
compressible flow solvers for viscous compressible flows
with application for flow around complete aircraft.
Subsequently, In 1996, he joined the Rolls Royce
Vibration University Technology Centre (VUTC) at the
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College
London, where he stayed for about 9 years. He progressed
to a Research Fellow, Senior Research Fellow and then
Principal Research Fellow. In 2001, he was awarded the
title RolIs Royce reaserch fellow at Imperial College
and in 2003 he was awarded a Royal Academy of
Engineering Senior Research Fellow co-funded by
Rolls-Royce Plc. During his spell at the VUTC, he was
one of two main developers for the unsteady aerodynamics
and aeroelatisity code AU3D which has been the main
aeroelasticity system at Rolls Royce. He also
contributed to several major aero-engine projects
including analysis of compressors, fans, turbines,
rotating cavities, intake and bypass ducts and
downstream nozzles.
In 2005 he became a Senior Lecturer in Computational
Mechanics at Brunel University. A year later, he was
appointed as a Professor of Computational Fluid Dynamics
at the University of Sussex where he worked at the
Thermo-Fluid Mechanics Research Centre (TFMRC) at the
Department of Engineering and Design. He continued to
lead research in unsteady compressible flow in
turbomacinery, where he focused on industrial gas
turbines and micro-gas turbines. He held several senior
administrative positions, the last of which was the
Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange for the
School of Engineering and Informatics. He also
introduced a new MSc in Sustainable Energy Technology.
In January 2013, he joined City University London as a
Professor of Energy Engineering. In 2014, he was
appointed as the associate Dean for Post Graduate
Studies at the School of Mathematics, Computer Science
and Engineering until July 2019. He held the position if
Interim Dean for the School between November 2018 and
February 2019. He is currently the Director of the
Thermo-Fluids Research Centre since February 2019 and
has been appointed as the Head of Engineering from 1st
of January 2020, heading the Department of Mechanical
Engineering and Aeronautics, the Department of Civil
Engineering and the Department of Electrical and
Electronic Engineering.
He has led the Cycle Efficiency Technical Committee at
the European Turbine Network (ETN) and has been a member
of the ETN Project Board since 2014. He is the founder
of the European Micro-Gas Turbine Forum (EMGTF) which
was established in 2017 and has been the chairman of its
advisory board.
Major research projects led: the EU FP7 consortium for
conducting research and demonstration of a concentrated
solar power system powering a small-scale micro-gas
turbine (OMSoP), 2013-207, the Newton project jointly
funded by InnovateUK and the Ministry of Science and
Technology of China (MoST) on the development of
concentrated solar power micro gas turbine technology
coupled to thermal energy storage (SoLGATS) 2017-2019,
The EPSRC funded project, Fundamental studies of Organic
Rankine Cycles (NextORC), 2017-2020, and the Marie Curie
Innovative Training Network, Next Generation of Micro
Gas turbine technology for high efficiency and low
emissions (NextMGT) 2020-2023. He has also led the
Turbomachiney work package the EU project H2-IGCC
2009-2013 which aimed at the development of micro gas
turbine technology for hydrogen-Rich Syngas and he is
currently leading the Turbomachinery work package in the
EU H2020 project SCARABEUS aiming at the development of
supercritical carbon dioxide cycles for concentrated
solar power plants.
Prof. Kuo-Lun Tung
National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Prof. Kuo-Lun Tung, is currently the Huang C.H. Chair Professor of Department of Chemical Engineering at National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei, Taiwan. He was the Deputy Vice President of the Office of the International Affairs in NTU. He received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1991, 1994 and 1998, respectively, from the NTU, all in chemical engineering. Before joining NTU since August 2012, he was the Director of the R&D Centre for Membrane Technology at Chung Yuan University from 2009 to 2012, with a specialty of research and development on membrane filtration applications for 20 years. Allan is also active in the international affairs in membrane filtration discipline. He was a council member of The Filtration Society in UK within 2008-2012 and also serving as the vice chair of the membrane technology specialist group in international water association (IWA). He also a newly elected fellow of IWA since 2018.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shanti Faridah binti Salleh
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Sarawak, Malaysia
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shanti Faridah Salleh has served as a lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak for more than 16 years. She graduated from Loughborough University, United Kingdom from which she has an Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering and Master Degree in Advanced Process Engineering. She obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering focusing on Biomass Conversion from Agricultural Waste from Universiti Putra Malaysia. She is currently a Chartered Energy Engineer of Institute of Energy under Engineering Council of UK Since 2000, she has had a long and successful career in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak working in different strategic areas, including; Faculty of Engineering, Academic Development and Management Division and Centre of Academic Quality Assurance and Curriculum Development.. On Professional Recognition, Assoc Prof Dr Shanti Faridah is Certified Auditor RSPO (Round Table Sustainable Palm Oil), Certified Environmental Lead Auditor ISO14001 and Registered EIA Consultant for NREB. She has involved in various module developments for TVET, Sime Darby and Palm Oil Refinery Association Malaysia. In terms of consultancy work, she has served few projects with Sarawak Energy Berhad, XFab Sarawak Bhd, Murata (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.