Hydrocarbon Biotechnology Challenges and Future Trends

Wael Ahmed Ismail is a Professor of Microbiology and Environmental Biotechnology and the former director of the Biotechnology Program at the Arabian Gulf University. Having more than 25 years of research experience in the field of microbial biodegradation of hydrocarbons, Dr. Ismail focuses his research on biodegradation of crude oil and steroids, biosurfactants production and applications, biodesulfurization of diesel fuel, as well as biocatalytic upgrading of heavy oil and refinery residues. He works in close association with the oil and gas authorities and research institutes in Bahrain and Kuwait. He serves on the editorial and review boards of several international journals and was a guest associate editor for a special issue on petroleum biotechnology in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

Jonathan Van Hamme is Professor of Microbiology at Thompson Rivers University, British Columbia, Canada, and founding Director of the TRUGen Applied Genomics Laboratory, a high-throughput sequencing facility. He is an applied environmental microbiologist with over 25 years of experience in petroleum microbiology, industrial waste treatment, contaminant biotransformation, phytoremediation, analytical chemistry, proteomics and genomics. Dr. Van Hamme is currently focused on uncovering the biochemical basis of bacterial per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) metabolism, as well as tracking SARS-CoV-2 in sewage. He was formerly an editor for Biodegradation and is currently an editor for the Canadian Journal of Microbiology.