Microbial Electrochemical Technologies

Sonia Tiquia-Arashiro is a Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-Dearborn). She joined the University in 2003. Dr. Tiquia-Arashiro did her graduate work at the University of Hong Kong and received her Ph.D. in Environmental Microbiology in 1997. From 1998 to 2003, she was trained in the laboratories of Dr. Thomas Richard (Iowa State University), Frederick Michel J. (Ohio State University) and Jizhong Zhao (Oakridge National Laboratory).

Dr. Tiquia-Arashiro takes great interest in teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. She teaches microbiology, applied and environmental microbiology, microbial physiology and microbial genetics. She also taught a biotechnology and bioprocessing course to biology and bioengineering majors. She served as Director of the Master of Science in Environmental Science Program from 2011 to 2017 and currently serves as Chair of Microbiology at UM-Dearborn. She is the regional editor of the journal Environmental Technology, and leads a large research laboratory with many undergraduate scholars.

In recent years Dr. Tiquia-Arashiro's research focus has largely dealt with the biotechnological applications of microorganisms. Her publication record includes over 80 articles in peer reviewed journals and she has published three books. The first book, Molecular Biological Technologies for Ocean Sensing draws on the work of many great scientists on the application of ecogenomic sensors on autonomous platforms in the ocean. The second book, Thermophilic Carboxydotrophs and Their Applications in Biotechnology, presents an elaborate overview of thermophilic carboxydotrophs and their possible benefits to biotechnology and sustainable agriculture and production. The third book, Extremophiles: Applications in Nanotechnology, provides an extensive overview of the current research worldwide on the use of extremophiles in the biosynthesis of metal nanoparticles and their applications.

Dr. Deepak Pant is a Senior Scientist at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Belgium. His research focuses on bioenergy, specifically, the design and optimization of bio-electrochemical systems for energy recovery from wastewater and microbial electrosynthesis for production of value-added chemicals through electrochemically driven bio-processes.

He has a PhD degree in environmental biotechnology from TERI University, New Delhi (India) and has 1 patent, 76 peer-reviewed publications (> 4300 citations; h-Index 35) and 20 book chapters to his credit. He is a member of several scientific communities including ISMET, ISE, BES, BRSI, IFIBiop and AMI. He serves as Editorial board member for the Journals: 'Bioresource Technology', 'Electronic Journal of Biotechnology', 'Biofuel Research Journal', 'Heliyon' and 'Frontiers in Environmental Science'. His first book as Editor, 'Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources' was published by Springer in 2013 and was one of the top 25% most downloaded eBooks in the relevant SpringerLink eBook Collection since its publication.

His research experience lies in industrial wastewater treatment, wasteland reclamation and restoration, biofertilizers, sustainable agriculture, biofuels and bioenergy, life cycle analysis (LCA). Currently, he is supervising one PhD student on microbial electro-synthesis and previously supervised 2 PhD student on microbial fuel cells. He was a promoter for two Marie Curie Post-docs on Microbial and Enzymatic Electro-synthesis on conversion of CO2 to value-added chemicals.

He is a regular speaker at conferences and has given more than 40 talks, half of which were as invited speaker. Last year he was invited to give talk at the EU-US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium Organized by the US National Academy of Engineering.