IITKGP

Ramkrishna Sen

Professor

Biotechnology

+91-3222-283752

rksen@bt.iitkgp.ac.in

Responsibilities

  • Prof-in-Charge, Advanced Laboratory for Plant Genetic Engineering

Research Areas

  • Biorefinery for Biofuels and Renewables
  • Green Surfactants and Polymers
  • Bioprocess Engineering and Technology
  • CO2 Utilization and Waste Valorization
  • Environmental and Marine Biotechnology
Dr. Ramkrishna Sen, Professor and Former Head of the Department of Biotechnology, is Professor-in-Charge, Advanced Lab for Plant Genetic Engineering (ALPGE), Former Chairperson – School of Bioscience; Former Chairman – Central Research Facility (Life Science 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) in 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, 26 Ph.D scholars completed their degrees and 15 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 in 2020. He has about 250 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 30 sponsored projects and is currently implementing 9. He published seven books with the world renowned publishers. Prof. Sen has received the Fulbright Visiting Professor Fellowship (2013–14); Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Award (2018); Distinguished Alumni Award – Jadavpur University (2017); National Award for Technology Innovation in Petrochemicals-&-Downstream Processing Industries, Government of India (2012) and UKIERI (British Council) Grant for Academic Visits of Universities in London and Northern-Ireland (2007). He is the founding member of Biological Engineering Society (India). He is a life member of IIChE and member of European and Asian Federations of Biotechnology. Prof. Sen has developed collaborations with many national and international Universities and has implemented some international projects.
  • Integrated in situ transesterification for improved biodiesel production from oleaginous yeast: A value proposition for possible industrial implication. Chopra J., Dineshkumar R. , Bhaumik M. , Gunaseelan D. , Kumar R. , Sen R. By RSC Advances 6 70364-70374 (2016)
  • Biotechnology in Enhanced Petroleum Recovery: The MEOR Sen R* By 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 Dey G., Bharti R. , Gunaseelan D. , ... .. , Sen R. , Mandal M. By Scientific Report 5 10316- (2015)
  • Microbial Amphiphiles: A Class of Promising New Generation Anticancer Agents Dey G, Bharti R, Mandal M & Sen R* By 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. Dey G., Bharati R. , Banerjee I. , Sen R. , Mandal M. By 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. Dhanarajan G., Rangarajan V. , Sridhar R. , Sen R. By 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. Dineshkumar R., Paul A. , Gangopadhyay M. , Singh N. , Sen R. By 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 Dineshkumar ., Dash S. K., Sen R. By RSC Advances 5 73381-73394 (2015)

Principal Investigator

  • An Integrated Biorefinery Approach for Production of Sustainable Biofuel and Bioproducts from Microalgae Combined with Wastewater Treatment and Flue Gas CO2 Fixation
  • Development of Green Polymer based Bio-nano Composites of Commercial Interest through Agro-industrial Waste Valorization
  • Development, Evaluation and Demonstration of Biosurfactant-based Fruits and Vegetables Sanitizer/Sterilizer Formulation(s) for on-Farm Food Safety and Security of Indian Farmers (EVERGREEN)
  • Process Intensification and Integration for Efficient CO2 Delivery to Enhance Algal Biomass Production in a Biorefinery Model (Acronym: in SCO2PE)
  • Sustainable Cement through Emulation of Biogeochemical Processes of Nature: Translation to Field Scale

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
  • New Generation Multifunctional Green Nanocomposite Coatings for the Control of Biodeterioration of Cultural Heritage Department of Science and Technology (DST)
  • Rural Drinking Water Treatment and Health University of Edinburgh

Ph. D. Students

Anjaly P Thomas

Area of Research: Integrated Waste Management

Ankita Debnath

Area of Research: Biopolymer & Biocementation

Chandrika Gupta

Area of Research: Bioproduct development & characterization

Debanjali Dey

Area of Research: Nanobiotechnology

Debjyoti Dawn

Area of Research: Biosequestration of CO2

Moumita Bhaumik

Area of Research: Process & Product Development

Pankaj Kumar

Area of Research: Surface Coatings

Rabiya

Area of Research: Bioprocess Engineering

Ravi Ranjan Kumar

Area of Research: Process & Product Development

Romit Mitra

Area of Research: Process and Product Development

Ruma Shankaran

Area of Research: Microbial Production of Biofuels

Satyanarayana Reddy Battula

Area of Research: Energy from Bioresources

Sayak Mitra

Area of Research: Gene and Process Scale Engineering

Sayari Mukherjee

Area of Research: Algal Biotechnology and Biorefinery

Sipra Barik

Area of Research: Waste Management

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

MS Students

Reshmi Bala

Area of Research: Environmental Biotechnology