Dr Sanjay Nene, CEO and Founding Director at Innovation Biologicals, Pune
Dr Nene is CEO and Founding Director at Innovation Biologicals, a startup incubated at Venture Center. He was with CSIR-NCL as Chief Scientist and Head of Biochemical Engineering Unit, Chemical Engineering & Process Engineering Division. He is M.Tech (Biochemical Engineering) from IIT, Delhi and PhD (Tech:Chemical Engineering) from Mumbai University. His areas of expertise include production of vaccines and biologicals, fermentation for production of enzymes (CGTase, alkalineprotease, polyphenol oxidase), recombinant proteins (phytase and lactoferrin), chemicals from renewable resources (Lactic and Pyruvic acid), energy/bioremediation (Algal cultivation), recovery of natural products: Stevioside from Stevia leaves, processing of fruit juices and natural beverages (Neera) and membrane processing, chromatography, aqueous two phase extraction, biotransformation of drug intermediates etc.
Dr Darbha Srinivas, CSIR-Bhatnagar Fellow, CSIR-NCL, Pune
Dr Darbha Srinivasa is CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow at CSIR-NCL. Prior to this, he was the Chief Scientist and Head of the Catalysis and Inorganic Chemistry Division of CSIR-NCL. He worked as a scientist in the Inorganic Chemistry and Homogeneous Catalysis Division of CSIR-CSMCRI, Bhavnagar between 1988-97. He obtained his Masters Degree in Chemistry with Physical Chemistry as main subject from Andhra University, Waltair, India in 1980 and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai between 1986 – 87. His research interests include design of novel materials for catalytic applications, green chemistry, utilization of renewable feedstocks for chemicals and fuels synthesis, material characterization by spectroscopic techniques, mechanistic investigations and structure-function correlations. His group has developed several sustainable catalytic processes. The catalysts and processes for biodiesel and biolubricants have been licensed to US companies.
Dr Prakash Wadgaonkar, Emeritus Scientist, Polymers and Advanced Materials Laboratory, CSIR-NCL Pune
Dr Wadgaonkar is Emeritus Scientist at Polymer Science and Engineering Division, CSIR-NCL and has been with NCL since 1982. He is a Ph.D from Pune University. His areas of expertise include controlled polymerization methods, monomers and polymers from renewable resources, high performance polymers, polymers for optoelectronics, associating polymers, polymeric materials for gas separation, self-healing polymers, click chemistry, PDMS elastomers for maxillofacial prostheses and UV curable coatings. He has more than 200 publications and 20+ National and International patents to his credit. He has also been consulting various industries during his NCL tenure.
Dr Sandeep Kale, Founder, QbD Purple Advanced Technologies Pvt Ltd, Pune
Dr Kale is Managing Director at Qbd Purple Advanced Technologies Pvt. Ltd. He is M.Tech in Bioprocess Technology and Ph.D. (Tech) in Chemical Engineering from ICT, Mumbai. He has over 10 years of experience in technology development and translation with 25 patents. He has earlier worked as associate professor and coordinator of M Tech Bioprocess Program at ICT, Mumbai. He is recipient of ‘Young Scientist Award in Biochromatography’ from SBCN, France. He has also received Dr. PD Sethi award and Dr. R.K. Khanna Memorial award for best research papers. He has commercialized multiple technologies. At ICT, Mumbai he has guided 26 Masters and 11 PhD students. He has active collaboration with various industries in India and abroad. He has developed several new technologies for the industries e.g. herbal/natural products purification, Oil seed meal processing, various protein purification and hydrolysis, omega fatty acid purification by chromatography, glycerol refining, sugar and oligosaccharide purification, stevia extraction and purification, antioxidant extraction and purifications related to cancer, diabetes, inflammation, autism, skin care, brain development etc.