Scientific Committee

Raquel Aires-Barros

is full Professor at the Department of Bioengineering (DBE) at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) and Senior Researcher at Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB). Current research interests include the development of new separation processes for purification biopharmaceuticals, with special emphasis on the purification of antibodies and the development of devices- Lab-on-a-Chip. She is chair of the Session of Downstream Processing (DSP) of the European Society of Biochemical Engineering Sciences (ESBES), President of the Portuguese Society for Biotechnology and editor of Separation and Purification Technology Journal.

Bruno Bühler

Bruno Bühler studied biology and biotechnology and did his PhD at ETH Zurich (2003), where he was awarded the ETH medal for outstanding PhD theses. After a postdoctoral period at ETH, he joined the TU Dortmund as group leader for habilitation. In 2015, he became Professor in a common appointment of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ in Leipzig and the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg.

Joaquim M.S. Cabral

is a IST Distinguished Professor and Emeritus Professor University of Lisbon, Portugal. He has developed his career at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), the Engineering School of University of Lisbon, the top engineering school and university in Portugal, and has been the a key player in bridging the fields of enzyme and bioprocess engineering and stem cell engineering. Prof. Cabral has developed the area of Biochemical Engineering at IST, by integrating engineering principles with fundamental research in cellular, gene and protein biotechnology to translate them into applications for the industrial (Industrial Bioengineering) and health (Medical Bioengineering) sectors.

Prof.dr.ir. Luuk A.M. van der Wielen

is Bernal Professor for Biosystems Engineering and Design since February 2017, and first Director of the Bernal Institute at the University of Limerick, Ireland (2017-2024). The Bernal Institute is a 450 p, €200+m research institute on structured materials characterisation, design and manufacturing, especially focusing on solving grand challenges in Health, Energy and the Environment. He is Distinguished Professor in Biobased Economy (nowadays parttime) at Delft University of Technology, Dept. of Biotechnology (www.bt.tudelft.nl ). Current research activities include sustainable development of (bio)renewables industrial manufacturing, and interfacing Circular Bioeconomy with the Offshore Renewable Energy sector. More detail at https://bernalinstitute.com/our_people/luuk-van-der-wielen/ .

Prof Jarka Glassey

completed her biochemical engineering studies at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava and currently works at Newcastle University, UK. Her research approach is based on the use of machine learning, AI and hybrid modelling for bioprocess development, scale-up and process intensification. She is currently VP Executive of EFCE and VP Executive of ESBES and is actively involved in the Measurement, modelling, monitoring and control section of ESBES as well as the EFCE working party on Education and WP on QbD. She was elected a Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering and is chairing the Board of Engineering Skills X, Engineering Skills for Safety. She is also passionate about the education of future generations of (bio)chemical engineers and her research in this area includes active teaching methodologies (such virtual and augmented reality) in education and assessment of knowledge and professional skills.

Professor J. Legrand

is currently Emeritus Professor in the laboratory GEPEA – UMR CNRS 6144 at the Nantes Université and Scientific Responsible at the French Research Agency (ANR). He has been teaching Chemical Engineering and has developed research on the conception and modelling of photobioreactors applied to the valorisation (energy, metabolites of interest) of microalgae and on multiphase processes (liquid-liquid flows for emulsification and microencapsulation and gas-liquid flow for different applications).

Marcel Ottens

is a Bio Process Engineering Professor at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He is Program Director of the Engineering Doctorate in Bio Process Engineering (EngD BPE); course leader and board member Annual International Post Graduate Advanced Course on Downstream Processing, Delft. He is editor of Food and Bioproducts Processing and board member of several learned societies – ESBES (European Section on Biochemical Engineering Science) and vice-chair of its Downstream Processing Section; and is involved in the ACS-BIOT (American Chemical Society, Biotechnology division), as well as Board member Cellular Agriculture Netherlands Foundation. He is involved in organization of many conferences and published over 130 double refereed scientific papers, various books and book chapters and holds several patents, presented dozens of (invited) lectures at international conferences

Arne Staby

Scientific VP/Senior Principal Scientist at CMC Project Planning & Management, Novo Nordisk A/S. He obtained a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from The Technical University of Denmark, Department of Chemical Engineering in 1993, and after finishing his post-doc in 1995, he has been working with development of purification processes for recombinant proteins and peptides at Novo Nordisk A/S, both as scientist, specialist, project manager, and department head. Current responsibilities include preparation and implementation of strategies within intellectual property rights, trade secrets, life-cycle management, technology development, Quality by Design, and bioethics for development of biopharmaceuticals. He has published and holds many papers and patents within industrial purification of proteins, and he frequently acts as oral presenter, program chair and session chair at international conferences, and as referee for international journals and in evaluation of Ph.D. theses. In 2009-2016, he was appointed Adj. Professor in protein purification at Department of Chemical Engineering, Lund University, Sweden. In 2019, he was appointed honorary doctor (Dr.h.c.) in Biotechnology at Lund University, Sweden.

Tiffany D Rau, Ph.D.

is a Co-founder and Principal Consultant of Bio Pharma Technical Consulting Ltd (Ireland) and is the founder of Rau Consulting (US). She is an expert in CMC, Process Development, Technology Transfer and scale-up and GMP manufacturing along with Facility Design and Start-up.  

Tiffany’s work is in a variety of areas including biopharmaceuticals, cell and gene therapy and microbial systems. Tiffany currently lectures at the University College Cork in the Advanced Cell and Gene Therapy Diploma program and is also on a number of academic advisory boards including Vanderbilt University and Florida State.