IITKGP

Responsibilities

  • Dean, Faculty of Biosciences & Biotechnology

Research Areas

  • Green Surfactants and Polymers
  • Bioprocess Engineering and Technology
  • Environmental and Marine Biotechnology
  • Biorefinery for Biofuels & Biorenewables
  • Algae-based Bio-CCU & Waste Valorization
Dr. Ramkrishna Sen, Professor and Former Head of the Department of Biotechnology, is Professor-in-Charge, Advanced Lab for Plant Genetic Engineering, Former Chairperson–School of Bioscience; Former Chairman–Central Research Facility (LS Div) and Ex-Joint Faculty, PK Sinha Center for Bioenergy-&-Renewables, IIT Kharagpur. Prof. Sen administered as Vice-Chairman and Chairman (GATE-&-JAM), IIT Kharagpur from 2015-2018. He served as a Fulbright Visiting Professor in Columbia University, New York, USA. He also worked as an Assistant Professor in BITS-Pilani and as Deputy Manager-&-Manager (R&D-Biotech), Cadila Pharmaceuticals. He has been engaged in R&D activities in the areas of Healthcare–Energy–Environment–&–Water, with a focus on Green Process-&-Product Development for Biotherapeutics; Marine bacterial green-surfactants; Biopolymers; Microbial/Microalgal Biofuels and Value-added products with CO2 sequestration and waste valorization in Biorefinery models. So far, 29 Ph.D scholars completed their degrees and 16 scholars are presently working under his supervision. Two PhD students jointly guided by him received their degrees from the University of Melbourne, Australia and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has about 290 publications in international and national journals/books/conference proceedings and 14 patent applications including one US, one European and one PCT to his credit. Prof. Sen completed 33 sponsored projects and is currently implementing 6. He published seven books with world renowned publishers. He has received Fulbright Visiting Professor Fellowship USA; Faculty Excellence Award IIT Kharagpur, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Award; Distinguished Alumni Award–Jadavpur University; National Award for Technology Innovation, UKIERI (British Council) Grant for Academic Visits of UK Universities. His name has been featuring in the World ranking of Top 2% Scientists since 2021. He is a founding member of Biological Engineering Society (India), a life member of IIChE, member of European and Asian Federations of Biotechnology and, the VP of India RBO-AFOB. Prof. Sen has collaborations with many national and international Universities and implemented some international projects.
  • Integrated in situ transesterification for improved biodiesel production from oleaginous yeast: A value proposition for possible industrial implication. by Chopra J., Dineshkumar R. , Bhaumik M. , Gunaseelan D. , Kumar R. , Sen R. RSC Advances 6 70364-70374 (2016)
  • Biotechnology in Enhanced Petroleum Recovery: The MEOR by Sen R* Progress in Energy & Combustion Science 34 714-724 (2008)
  • Marine Lipopeptide Iturin A Inhibits Akt Mediated GSK3β and FoxO3a Signaling and Triggers Apoptosis in Breast Cancer by Dey G., Bharti R. , Gunaseelan D. , ... .. , Sen R. , Mandal M. Scientific Report 5 10316- (2015)
  • Microbial Amphiphiles: A Class of Promising New Generation Anticancer Agents by Dey G, Bharti R, Mandal M & Sen R* Drug Discovery Today 20 136-146 (2015)
  • Pre-clinical Risk Assessment and therapeutic potential of Antitumor Lipopeptide,Iturin A, in in vivo and in vitro Model. by Dey G., Bharati R. , Banerjee I. , Sen R. , Mandal M. RSC Advances 6 71612-71623 (2016)
  • Development and scale-up of an efficient and green process for HPLC purification of antimicrobial homologues of commercially important microbial lipopeptides. by Dhanarajan G., Rangarajan V. , Sridhar R. , Sen R. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 4 6638-6646 (2016)
  • Smart and reusable biopolymer nanocomposite for simultaneous microalgal biomass harvesting and disruption: An integrated downstream processing for sustainable biorefinery. by Dineshkumar R., Paul A. , Gangopadhyay M. , Singh N. , Sen R. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 5 852-861 (2016)
  • Process Integration for Microalgal Lutein and Biodiesel Production with Concomitant Flue Gas CO2 Sequestration: A Biorefinery Model for Healthcare, Energy and Environment by Dineshkumar ., Dash S. K., Sen R. RSC Advances 5 73381-73394 (2015)

Principal Investigator

  • Indo-Belgian Network on Enhancing the Biotechnological Potential of Microalgae (ALGONET) Department of Biotechnology

Co-Principal Investigator

  • Enhanced Lipid Production by Genetically Engineered Algal Strain : Scale up Cultivation and Engineering for Co-Production of Value-added isoprenoids - DBT PAN IIT Center for Bioenergy : Phase II DBT, NEW DELHI

Ph. D. Students

Akanksha Singh

Area of Research: Algal Biotechnology

Anjaly P Thomas

Area of Research: Integrated Waste Management

Debanjali Dey

Area of Research: Nanobiotechnology

Indranil Bhattacharya

Area of Research: Photosynthetic microbial biorefinery

Lisa Ghosh

Area of Research: Algal Biotechnology

Pankaj Kumar

Area of Research: Surface Coatings

Ruma Shankaran

Area of Research: Microbial Production of Biofuels

Sayak Mitra

Area of Research: Gene and Process Scale Engineering

Sayari Mukherjee

Area of Research: Algal Biotechnology and Biorefinery

Suman Dhar

Area of Research: Algal Biorefinery

Sundipan Bhowmick

Area of Research: Biomass and Waste Valorization

Varisha Farheen

Area of Research: Drug and bioactive delivery systems

Yadav Santoshnambi

Area of Research: Microalgal biorefinery