BIO-COMPETE - Key Persons
Clemens Posten worked for more than 20 years as Professor at KIT in the field of microalgal bioprocesses. In this role he discovered basic interplays between light, reactor, medium, and microalgal growth and product kinetics. The deep understanding of microalgae includes the design of photo-bioreactors, process control strategies, and technical evaluation of production processes. Applied techniques are modelling, control, automation, and solid liquid separation for harvesting.
His broad insight into microalgal biotechnology is published in more than two hundred refereed papers, five books, many book chapters and five patents, see link in the menu. He represented his field in boards of esbes, eaba, and dechema. Furthermore, he was active in academic and industrial assessment processes. Recently he changed his status to active professor in retirement. Currently, he continues his activities by sharing his knowledge with interested companies and authorities.
Olaf Kruse is scientific director of the "Center of Biotechnology" - CeBiTec - the largest faculty-spanning academic institution at Bielefeld University. With his working group "Microalgae for biotechnology and bioenergy application" he became a leading scientist and internationally recognized expert in microalgal bioengineering. His success also on applied questions comes from understanding elementary aspects of sun-to-biomass conversion via photosynthesis in microalgae and identifying, characterizing and optimizing potential bottlenecks.
In this position he is in the board of international organizations in this field (e.g. eaba) and is also known as organizer of related conferences.