SPEAKERS

Our programme is almost confirmed and we have a great selection of speakers for 2019 with final speakers being added in the coming weeks.

The sections below provide details around our Speakers and Chairs and where possible, presentations will be made available to view online here following the event in January.

For general speaker enquiries please contact our Marketing and Communications Co-ordinator.

IBioIC19 Plenary Chair - Dame Anne Glover
Level: Host
Plenary Chair - Closing Plenary

Thursday 31st January 2019 15.00 - 15.40

Plenary Speaker - IB for a Sustainable Future

Wednesday 30th January 11.00 - 12.30
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IBioIC19 Plenary Chair - Julia Brown, Scottish Enterprise
Level: Host
Plenary Chair - Funding Landscape

Thursday 31st January 2019 09.00 - 10.45

Julia Brown, Sector Portfolio Director, High Value Manufacturing and Health, Scottish Enterprise Julia is responsible for setting and delivering Scottish Enterprise's strategies for sectors involved in the manufacture of high value products which include life and chemical sciences; aerospace; defence; marine and security to support the economic growth and development of these sectors in Scotland. In addition, she is responsible for supporting industry engagement on Health and Social Care opportunities in Scotland. Julia is currently a Board member of Knowledge Transfer Network. Following a career managing non clinical and clinical programmes for a range of biopharmaceutical companies (including Syntex; Roche and PPL Therapeutics), she co-founded a CRO (Pleiad) that successfully expanded its operations into the US to support medical device and biopharma companies. In her role as Director of Programmes for the publicly funded ITI Scotland, she was responsible for commissioning and directing a wide range of research programmes with academic and commercial groups. Julia is interested in supporting the successful commercialisation of the academic research base and has been a Director of the Genomia Fund, a member of the Board of Directors of the James Hutton Institute and Mylnefield Research Services.
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Chris Goodall
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - Closing Plenary

Thursday 31st January 2019 15.00 - 15.40

Chris Goodall is a writer and analyst on the energy transition. He has published five books on reducing the climate change impact of energy use. He is also an investor in innovative start-ups in the low carbon field and chairs ChargePoint Services, the UK’s fastest growing network of rapid chargers for EVs.
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - David Newman, BBIA
Level: Host
IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Funding Landscape

Thursday 31st January 2019 09.15 - 10.4

David Newman lived abroad until 2014 when he returned to the UK. He was the Executive Director of Greenpeace Italy 1994-1997; from 1999 until 2014 he led the Italian composting and biogas association CIC and he led the Italian Bioplastics Association from 2011 to 2015. During this time (2012-13) he was personal advisor to the Italian Minister of Environment, Andrea Orlando. From 2012 to 2016 he was President of the International Solid Waste Association in Vienna and initiated the 2015 Global Waste Management Outlook report written by ISWA and UNEP. He founded and leads the Bio Based and Biodegradable Industries Association UK since 2015 which works to promote the bioeconomy in the UK. He is also President of the World Biogas Association since November 2016, co-author of the report Global Food Waste Management, an Implementation Guide for Cities, published in May 2018 by the WBA with C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Ian Graham, High Value Biorenewables (HVB) Network
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - BBSRC NIBB Phase II

Thursday 31st January 09.15 - 10.45

Based at the University of York, Ian is Director of BioYork, and Weston Chair of Biochemical Genetics, with his research team based in the Department’s Centre for Novel Agricultural Products. Ian was Director of the BBSRC funded High Value Chemicals from Plants Network in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy from 2014 - 2018 and continues in that role for the Phase II High Value Biorenewables Network which will run from 2019 - 2023. During his career Ian has made significant contributions to our understanding of plant metabolism and seed biology. His most recent research has shed new light on the production of small molecule natural products from plants such as the anti-cancer compound noscapine, morphinan-based analgesics such as codeine and morphine, and the antimalarial drug artemisinin. Funding for his research comes from a range of sources including industry, UK Government (BBSRC), EU, UK and overseas charities. In 2016 Ian was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO). He was also awarded the Biochemical Society’s 2017 Heatley Medal and Prize for exceptional work in applying advances in biochemistry, particularly in developing practical uses that have created widespread benefits and value for society.
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Ivan McKee, MSP
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - Funding Landscape

Thursday 31st Januay 2019 09.00 - 10.45

Ivan McKee was elected MSP for Glasgow Provan in May 2016 and was appointed Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation in the Scottish Government in June 2018. Brought up in Glasgow Mr. McKee obtained a BSc.BEng in Manufacturing Sciences and Engineering from Strathclyde University and an MBA from Newcastle University. After spending 2 years in Bangladesh with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) Mr. McKee worked for a number of large and start-up manufacturing companies. In 2005 he started his own international manufacturing consultancy business and from 2009 to 2015 invested in, and led turnarounds of, several manufacturing businesses. His career has included periods living and working in a number of countries including Poland, Croatia, Finland, Norway, Bosnia and Estonia as well as Scotland and England.
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Kathryn Sheridan, Sustainability Consult
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - IB for a Sustainable Future

Wednesday 30th January 11.00 - 12.30

Driven by a strong personal belief that organisations need to communicate better on sustainability, Kathryn set up Sustainability Consult in 2008. Ten years later, she was listed by Conscious Company Magazine as a Top Conscious Business Leader for her Personal Journey, one of 21 leaders recognised globally. Kathryn built a strong culture around doing good work and making a difference, founding initiatives like Green Drinks Brussels and The Good Library. She built a global biomaterials consulting practice and gave a TEDx talk on Bioplastics Fantastic in Ghent in 2016. In January 2019, Kathryn is launching new business services around credibility.
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Kevin O'Connor, University College Dublin
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - IB for a Sustainable Future

Wednesday 30th January 11.00 - 12.30

Professor Kevin O’ Connor is director of BEACON SFI bioeconomy research centre. He is also a Principal investigator in the UCD Earth Institute and a member of the School of biomolecular and biomedical science at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. BEACON works on fundamental research challenges in the bioeconomy related to sustainability, selective separation of compounds, and conversion of low value starting materials to higher value products. Professor O’ Connor is chairperson of the scientific committee for the European public private partnership Biobased Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU). Professor O Connor has published over 90 international peer review articles and made of over 200 contributions (presentations and posters) at national and International conferences. He has filed 8 patents and successfully licensed 3 technologies resulting from his research work. Professor O’ Connor has founded two start-up biotechnology companies.
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Michele Stanley, SAMS
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - BBSRC NIBB Phase II

Thursday 31st January 09.15 - 10.45

Session Speaker - Blue Biotech

Wednesday 30th January 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 31st January 11.30 - 13.00

Based at SAMS in Oban Michele has over 23 years’ experience of working with both macro and microalgae. She is the Associate Director for Innovation and leads research in the field applied phycology at SAMS. Her current research focus has been on the development of high value products from microalgae and the development of cultivation/bioprocessing systems for various macroalgal species. This work has been supported by major grants from BBSRC and the EU, and several projects with SMEs in the UK. She has previously served as the chair for the Science Advisory Board of IBioIC and is currently a member of BBSRC’s IBBE SAP. She was the Co-Director for the BBSRC funded Network in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy Phyconet from 2014-2018 and in this role for the Phase II NIBBS UK Algae and BBNET.
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Nigel Minton, CCNet
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - BBSRC NIBB Phase II

Thursday 31st January 09.15 - 10.45
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Nigel Robinson, Elements of Bioremediation, Biomanufacturing & Bioenergy (E3B)
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - BBSRC NIBB Phase II

Thursday 31st January 09.15 - 10.45

After first degree and PhD at Liverpool University, Nigel Robinson obtained fellowships to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, to find genes enabling plants to tolerate elevated metals and coincidentally to learn molecular genetics. A Royal Society University Research Fellowship then supported him to gather metal-related genetic resources. In 1994 he became Professor of Genetics, Newcastle Medical School, and his research focused on how metals find their way to the correct gene products, in all types of organisms. In 2005, with Dennis Winge, University of Utah, he established the Cell Biology of Metals Gordon Research Conference. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and since 2014 has directed the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Network in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (IBBE) on Metals in Biology: Elements of IBBE, which has instigated more than 43 Industry-Academia collaborations which in turn have helped to launch products, obtain patents, and safeguard or create more than 80 jobs.
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Saul Purton, PHYCONET
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - BBSRC NIBB Phase II

Thursday 31st January 09.15 - 10.45

Saul Purton is Professor of Algal Biotechnology at UCL, and Director of Algae-UK (formerly PHYCONET): the UK’s BBSRC-funded network in algal biotechnology and bioenergy. He obtained his PhD in plant molecular biology from the University of Cambridge in 1988, and was then awarded a long-term EMBO Fellowship to study algal molecular-genetics at the University of Geneva before joining UCL as a lecturer in 1991. His research group focusses on various aspects of microalgal biology and evolution, and the exploitation of microalgae and cyanobacteria as phototrophic cell factories for production of natural or recombinant products. These products include pigments, oils, bioactive metabolites and therapeutic proteins. Major new projects in his group include the redesign and synthesis of a completely synthetic chloroplast genome (in collaboration with Professor Alison Smith, University of Cambridge) and the development of new molecular tools and technologies for industrially important microalgal species.
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Simon Edmonds, UKRI
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - Funding Landscape

Thursday 31st January 09.15 - 10.45
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IBioIC19 Plenary Speaker - Sonia Heaven, Environmental Biotechnology Network (EBNet)
Level: Host
Plenary Speaker - BBSRC NIBB Phase II

Thursday 31st January 09.15 - 10.45
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IBioIC19 Session Chair - Alan Kennedy, Diageo
Level: Host
Session Chair - Brewing and Distilling Supply Chain

Wednesday 30th January 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 31st January 11.30 - 13.00

Dr Alan Kennedy, Diageo Alan Kennedy is Science & Technology Director at the Diageo International Supply Technical Centre in Menstrie, Scotland, a role he has held for the last 6 years. In this role he leads teams responsible for whisky blending, development & commercialisation of other spirits (gin, vodka, etc), process development (with a focus on efficiency & sustainability), wood & cask science research and analytical method development. Prior to his current role, Alan worked in the brewing industry for over 19 years with Diageo (Guinness) in Ireland & Africa, AB InBev in Belgium and Scottish & Newcastle Breweries in the UK holding a number of technical and quality roles. Alan is a member of the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) Scientific Committee, Scotch Whisky Research Institute (SWRI) Research Management Committee and was Chair of the Organising Committee for the Worldwide Distilled Spirits Conference in 2017. He is also a member of the IBioIC Industrial Advisory Board. He has a BSc (Hons) in Applied Microbiology and PhD in Pharmaceutical Microbiology, both from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
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IBioIC19 Session Chair - David Robertson, 3F BIO
Level: Host
IBioIC19 Session Chair - Members Showcase

Thursday 31st January 2019 - 14.00 - 15.00

Currently an independent consultant focusing on supporting the challenging business of process technology commercialisation. He is currently Chair of 3FBIO, a biotech spin-out from the University of Strathclyde (UoS) that has a new route to sustainable protein.
David was an executive at BP for 10 years during a 30-year career. His last position was Technology Vice President, Conversion. He built a team of 100 people from scratch and led successful development and commercialization of syngas conversion processes including the fixed bed Fischer Tropsch process using Cobalt catalyst. He has recently become a member of the Governing Board of the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) based at UoS in Glasgow. He was most recently COO at Hydrodec Group, an AIM (UK) listed clean and sustainable re-refining oil company with operating assets in Australia and USA. He had accountability for all aspects of the company’s global operations, engineering, projects and HSEQ. Previously, he was SVP and COO at Ze-gen Inc., a Boston based start-up developing Liquid Metal Gasification technology to repurpose high energy content waste destined for landfills into syngas.

David is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, a Charted Engineer, has a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland and attended an Executive Education programme at Harvard Business School. He has 3 sons and lives in Epsom, near London, in the UK.
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IBioIC19 Session Chair - Douglas McKenzie, Xanthella
Level: Host
Session Chair - Blue Biotech

Wednesday 30th January 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 31st January 11.30 - 13.00

Originally from Glasgow, Douglas obtained his BSc in Zoology from Glasgow University then did a PhD in Marine Zoology Queens University, Belfast. After post-docs in Leeds and Sheffield he returned to Scotland as the first Research Fellow at Scottish Association for Marine Science in 1989. Founded the Marine Biotechnology Group at SAMS and was involved in the early development of the University of the Highlands and Islands. Published >50 scientific papers, co-authored 4 patents. >25years experience managing applied research projects including coordinating two EU CRAFT programmes. In 1999 founded his first company, Integrin which grew to a turnover of ~£3M by 2007 with sixty staff. Won a number of awards for innovation: (SCDI 2003 Pfizer award for innovation in the Life Sciences; 2006 Highlands and Islands “Best award”). Raised >£5 million equity, grants and bank loans. Member of the Scottish Biotech Steering Group (2000-2005) Adviser to the Norwegian government on Fuge biotechnology programme. Participated in two DTI Global Watch and two Scottish Development International missions to China and Japan. Exited Integrin 2008.
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IBioIC19 Session Chair - Frank Sargent, Newcastle University
Level: Host
Session Chair - Spotlight on the PhD

Thursday 31st January 14.00 - 15.00
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IBioIC19 Session Chair - Louise McGregor, Zero Waste Scotland
Level: Host
Session Chair - Circular Economy

Wednesday 30th January 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 31st January 11.30 - 13.00

Louise has 17 years’ experience in Resource Management, working for the Waste & Resources Action Programme for 13 of those years, with a focus on organics reprocessing for much of that time. In October 2007, Louise moved to Scotland, as part of a small initial team which established a Scottish programme and office for WRAP. Louise took responsibility for supporting reprocessing and was instrumental in helping to deliver significant food waste reprocessing capacity in Scotland through anaerobic digestion and composting. Louise now leads Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy team, influencing businesses and wider society to embrace circular opportunities. Louise’s work is focussed on overcoming obstacles to a circular economy model, as well as offering practical, technical and financial support to businesses to help them to develop & implement circular economy solutions.
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IBioIC19 Session Chair - Stuart West, Biocatalysts
Level: Host
Session Chair - Value Chains in Bioprocessing

Wednesday 30th January 16.00 - 17.30
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Douglas Martin, MiAlgae
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Circular Economy

Wednesday 30th January 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 31st January 11.30 - 13.00

Douglas Martin is the Managing Director of MiAlgae, a Scottish company that converts under-utilized liquid by-products to algae which is then used as a high value animal feed. The algae remove the nutrients from the by-products thereby generating clean water as an additional output. The company selects and breeds natural algae to enhance their specific qualities. This allows them to be grown in standard industrial fermenters to ensure efficient, low cost production. The company’s current focus is on using whisky by-products to produce omega-3 oil rich microalgae as a replacement for fish oil. This allows MiAlgae to link the two largest food and drinks exports from the UK with huge environmental benefits.
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Alex Conradie, University of Nottingham
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Carbon capture, renewables chemicals and energy

Wednesday 30th January 16.00 - 17.30

Professor Alex Conradie is the Chair of Sustainable Chemical Processing in Chemical Engineering at the University of Nottingham (UK), where he is the Director of the Nottingham Green Chemicals Beacon of Excellence - a multi-disciplinary investment (£13m) in sustainable processing. From 2002 to 2006, he realised the R&D, scale-up and technology transfer for a number of new amino acid production technologies at kiloton scale. From 2006 to 2011, he applied his experience in technology transfer to manufacturing therapeutic proteins, entailing programme and technical management of several multi-million pound projects. Returning to kiloton scale sustainable processing, he led as primary inventor in the creation of the technology platform within a polymer manufacturer’s Sustainability Group, geared towards polyamide monomer and alkene production. In industry, he has held engineering science leadership positions in industrial biotechnology and sustainable processing, where he has filled a pivotal role as technology integrator covering process conceptualisation, techno-economic analysis, scale-up, process modelling and process design; collaborating with centres of excellence within the UK, USA and Europe.
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Alison Hughes, Xanthella
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Blue Biotech

Wednesday 30th January 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 31st January 11.30 - 13.00

Alison received her BSc. (hons) from the National University of Ireland, Galway before spending two years as a teaching and research assistant at the University of South Florida, Tampa, where she worked on marine natural product isolation and characterisation. In 2017, she began her PhD at the University of Strathclyde under the supervision of Dr. Katherine Duncan. Her project focuses on the effect of environmental and light stress on the production of metabolites by marine microalgae using a comparative metabolomics approach. This IBioIC funded project is in collaboration with Dr. Douglas McKenzie, CEO of Xanthella Ltd., Oban and she will complete an industrial placement here in 2019.
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Alix Mackay, Alix Mackay Marketing
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Members' Showcase

Thursday 31st January 14.00 - 15.00

Specialising in Biotechnology and Life Sciences, Alix Mackay MRSC shows ambitious business and academic leaders how to increase their presence in the market and build their thought leadership in the field. Alix combines her commercial experience in the biopharmaceutical industry with the latest best practice in online marketing to provide SMEs with marketing leadership, focus and ROI to their marketing strategy. Based in Glasgow, Alix co-leads the Life Sciences Scotland Marketing team, is a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, an associate member of IBioIC, a member of BioCity’s High Growth Venture business consultant team and is certified by HubSpot as an Inbound Marketer.

Read Alix's guest blog; The smarter way to increase your presence in the market.
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Andy Burgess, Suez
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Circular Economy

Wednesday 30th January 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 31st January 11.30 - 13.00
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Andy Leitch, Forestry Commission
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Wood Biorefining

Wednesday 30th January 16.00 - 17.30
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Annemette Kjeldsen, University of Glasgow
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Spotlight on the PhD

Thursday 31st January 14.00 - 15.00

University of Glasgow and Ingenza Ltd. She is focused on developing the small fluorescent protein iLOV as an enabling tool within biotechnology. In addition to developing biosensors for anaerobic processes and structurally characterising iLOV-mutants by NMR, she is passionate about how biotechnology can help the growing environmental challenges. She recently helped IBioIC generate a report for BEIS on the current status of biodegradability of plastics. Before commencing on her PhD, Annemette obtained a Masters in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 2013. After this she worked for Ingenza Ltd, primarily as a protein chemist and assay development scientist.
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Anton Pujorov, University of Edinburgh
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Spotlight on the PhD

Thursday 31st January 14.00 - 15.00

In 2016 Anton graduated with a First-class honours degree in Biological Sciences (Biotechnology) with Management from the University of Edinburgh. During his honours project he was working on improvement of photosynthetic efficiency by engineering of carbon concentrating mechanisms from cyanobacteria and algae into plants.
In 2017 Anton finished an MSc in Bioinformatics with Distinction at the UoE. For his MSc dissertation project he was working as a part of the UoE iGEM Overgraduate team 2017. They developed a modular molecular toolkit for re-sensitisation of antibiotic-resistant pathogens using CRISPR delivered by a two-phage system, which won the Best Therapeutics Award.
Since 2017 Anton is doing a PhD at the UoE with an aim to explore a synthetic biology approach to engineering novel commercial variants of cyanobacterial pigment proteins in collaboration with an industrial partner ScotBio. The project is funded by BBSRC, NPIF and IBioIC, and supervised by Alistair McCormick.
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Bob Tooze, Drochaid
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Carbon capture, renewable chemicals and energy

Wednesday 30th January 16.00 - 17.30

Bob Tooze is Managing Director of Drochaid Research Services Ltd. Following a degree and PhD in Chemistry at Imperial College London, Bob has spent over 33 years in the Chemical Industry in various companies and locations but always in Research. In 2017 he led the establishment of Drochaid, a contract R&D company in the fields of catalysis and materials science. Bob was previously a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council (SSAC), chaired Chemical Sciences Scotland and the Industrial Advisory Panel of the UK Catalysis Hub. He sits on the Governing Board of IBioIC and was recently appointed to 2 EPSRC Strategic Advisory Teams (Manufacturing the Future and Physical Sciences). He has an Honorary Chair in Chemistry at the University of St Andrews, delivering courses in the area of catalysis. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Catherine Wark, BMG LABTECH
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Members' Showcase

Thursday 31st January 14.00 - 15.00
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Charles Gordon, Britest
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Members' Showcase

Thursday 31st January 14.00 - 15.00

Charlie received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, and followed this with a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Nottingham. He then held postdoctoral positions at the University of Würzburg, Dublin City University and Queens’ University Belfast, before taking up a lectureship in Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde in 1997. While at Strathclyde, Charlie received a Royal Society of Edinburgh/BP Research Fellowship to support his developing research interests in ionic liquids. In 2003 he moved to RWTH-Aachen to take up a research position in Technical Chemistry. This was followed by a switch to the pharmaceutical sector in 2004 with Pfizer Sandwich, to work as a Reaction Engineer in Chemical Process R&D, with responsibility for the technology transfer and scale-up of processes from development laboratories to pilot and manufacturing facilities. In 2011 Charlie moved to his current role with Britest, where his responsibilities encompass technical facilitation, training in the Britest toolkit, and participation in collaborative R&D projects with industrial and academic partners. Charlie is also a member of the Commercial Advisory Board of IBioIC.
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Charlotte Lilley, University of Edinburgh
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Brewing and Distilling Supply Chain

Wednesday 30th January 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 31st January 11.30 - 13.00

Charlotte is a final year PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, studying the synthesis of copper nanoparticles by bacteria in the Horsfall Lab. Her project is funded by iBioIC and Diageo, and focusses on developing scale up and optimisation of metal bioremediation processes.
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Christine Edwards, Robert Gordon University
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Circular Economy

Wednesday 30th January 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 31st January 11.30 - 13.00

CHRISTINE EDWARDS is a Reader in Applied Microbiology, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. She has over 30 years’ experience in biotoxin research with >10 years’ industrial experience, with the rest of her career in Universities (UCL, Dundee and RGU). As Co-Director of CyanoSol at RGU, she has pioneered the study, production and curation of the World’s largest portfolio of cyanotoxins made available to the global scientific community through industrial collaboration with Enzo Life Sciences. This expertise, along with bespoke provision for algal culturing (>1200 L), downstream processing, purification (mass guided prep chromatography) and characterisation of biotoxins (LC-MS) at RGU underpin the delivery of this project and has led to RCUK funding (EP/P029280/1), KTP, BBSRC and IBioIC funding. CE has extensive experience in method development for trace analysis of biotoxins in complex sample matrices (water, animal/fish tissues and cells) and) pioneered the benchmark method for microcystin analysis (>700 citations).
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - David Mackie, Marine Biopolymers
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Blue Biotech

Wednesday 30th January 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 31st January 11.30 - 13.00
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Diego Oyarzun, University of Edinburgh
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Value Chains in Bioprocessing

Wednesday 30th January 16.00 - 17.30

Dr Diego Oyarzún leads the Biomolecular Control Group at the University of Edinburgh. He holds a BSc and MSc in Engineering from U Santa María, Chile, and a PhD from the Hamilton Institute, Ireland. He was a Research Fellow in Biomathematics at Imperial College London (2013-2018) and currently holds a joint faculty appointment between the School of Informatics and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. His research team develops novel computational methods for the design of biomolecular systems for biotechnology and healthcare. Oyarzún has published over 40 research papers and leads various multidisciplinary collaborations in the UK, Europe and USA. He holds advisory roles at various global platforms (World Economic Forum, G20 summit) and is an associate editor for several journals in biotechnology and synthetic biology.
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IBioIC19 Session Speaker - Ed Wilson, Nova Pangea
Level: Host
Session Speaker - Wood Biorefining

Wednesday 30th January 16.00 - 17.30

Ed has 40 years experience of managing technical activities particularly in the process industries both in the UK and internationally. Having worked with Foster Wheeler in South Africa on the coal gasification to fuel plants and major power stations he returned to the UK to work on the BP Wytch Farm project. Taking a year out to do an MBA he then worked with Veolia on waste to energy and other energy supply facilities. Joining Courtaulds he took their engineering company independent through an MBA and focussed their capability on the high end industries of fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals and food processing later moving into renewables. This led to a great interest in new technologies and having sold his business he worked as MD of a Fuel Cell company before investing in and subsequently becoming CEO of Nova Pangaea. This business is leading the development of thermo-chemical processing of waste biomass into liquid fuels and chemicals. It is remarkable in not relying on catalysts or microbes and as such is scalable and continuous thus providing great economic benefits. The company will soon complete a large scale demonstration plant on Teesside supported by a Department for Transport grant.
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