Shishir Chundawat

• Year

  2024

• Program

  Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future (VIFF)

• Institution

  Rutgers University

• Location

  Piscataway, USA

Dr. Chundawat is Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers University. He received his B.Tech. in Chemical Technology from the Institute of Chemical Technology (Mumbai, India) and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University. He held a postdoctoral associate and then staff scientist position at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Department of Biochemistry). He also held an adjunct/research assistant professor position at the Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science at Michigan State University before joining Rutgers in January 2015. 

The Chundawat Research Group takes a carbohydrate or ‘glycan-centric’ approach to sustainably address scientific and engineering problems relevant to diverse areas from biotherapeutics manufacturing to waste upcycling into fuels-chemicals. He has 20+ years expertise in protein and glycan engineering, advanced bioprocessing, and single-molecule biophysical characterization techniques. In particular, his group is actively expanding the repertoire of applications for carbohydrate-active enzymes in bioenergy, healthcare, and advanced biomanufacturing.

His research is funded by the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL), Schmidt Sciences, Department of Agriculture, Dairy Management Inc., and Food & Drug Administration. Some recent academic honors include the A. Walter Tyson Endowment Award, Agilent-University Award, National Science Foundation Career Award, A. Walter Tyson Assistant Professorship Award, and Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award.