Eric Gathirwa Kariuki
At the beginning of October 2024, Eric Gathirwa Kariuki M.Sc. has joined the Bioprocess Engineering team as a PhD candidate and Research Associate, supported by a DAAD scholarship. His research focuses on optimizing bioethanol production from the invasive water hyacinth Pontederia crassipes, specifically through mild pretreatment strategies and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) to improve bioprocess efficiency.
In 2018, Eric completed his bachelor’s degree in industrial biotechnology at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in Kenya, where his thesis investigated bioethanol production from water hyacinth. He later earned an M.Sc. in Bioinformatics in 2022 from Makerere University, focusing his thesis on the gut microbiome metatranscriptomics of black soldier fly larvae to identify and functionally characterize lignocellulolytic biomass-degrading microbes. As a 2022 Research Fellow at the International Sustainability Academy in Hamburg, Germany, Eric co-developed Hyatrak, a predictive model for the sustainable utilization of water hyacinth in biofuels and biorenewables production, as part of Aquaethanol Technologies (AeT), a startup he co-founded. From 2023 to 2024, he also served as a part-time lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry at his alma mater, JKUAT in Kenya.
We warmly welcome Eric to the BVT Team and look forward to his research and academic contributions!