Shafeer Kalathil, Ph.D.

Alumni

Now at Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK (Professor)

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Biography

Dr. Shafeer Kalathil is a Microbial Electrochemist interested in the applications of electric bacteria to produce either electricity from wastewater or value-added products from waste carbon. He holds an M.Sc. in Chemistry and earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 2013, specializing in Microbial Fuel Cells and Photocatalysis. Following his doctoral studies, he was awarded a prestigious Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship at the University of Tokyo, where he investigated the fundamental mechanisms of bacterial extracellular electron transfer using Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 as a model bacterium.

After completing his JSPS tenure, he joined King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as a Postdoctoral Fellow under the supervision of Prof. Pascal Saikaly (Jan 2015- Dec 2017). At KAUST, his research focused on the bioinspired synthesis of graphene and metal oxides using Geobacter sulfurreducens (the highest electricity producing bacterium till date) for applications in water oxidation catalysis.

He later secured a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship and joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge as a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Kalathil has authored 32 international peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, including Nature Catalysis, Nature Energy, PNAS, JACS, Advanced Materials, and Chemistry of Materials. He holds an h-index of 26 with over 2,980 citations (Google Scholar) and has contributed to three book chapters and ten patents.

Currently, Dr. Shafeer is an Assistant Professor at the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, where he continues his research on biotechnology-driven solutions for energy and chemical production. He also serves as an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Microbiology and is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) and the Royal Society of Biology (MRSB).

Selected Publications

  • Kalathil, S., Katuri, K. P., & Saikaly, P. E. (2020). Synthesis of an amorphous Geobacter-manganese oxide biohybrid as an efficient water oxidation catalyst. Green Chemistry, 22(17), 5610-5618. DOI: 10.1039/D0GC01811H
  • Kalathil, S., Katuri, K. P., Alazmi, A. S., Costa, P. M. F. J., & Saikaly, P. E. (2020). Method of producing electrically active bacteria reduced graphene oxide and electrically active bacteria reduced graphene oxide. US Patent 10,876,136.
  • Kalathil, S., Katuri, K. P., Ragab, A., Bian, B., Alqahtani, M., Pant, D., & Saikaly, P. E. (2018). Dual‐function electrocatalytic and macroporous hollow‐fiber cathode for converting waste streams to valuable resources using microbial electrochemical systems. Advanced Materials, 30, 1707072. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201707072
  • Kalathil, S., Katuri, K. P., Alazmi, A. S., Pedireddy, S., Kornienko, N., Costa, P. M. F. J., & Saikaly, P. E. (2019). Bioinspired Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Wrapped Geobacter sulfurreducens as a Hybrid Electrocatalyst for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction. Chemistry of Materials, 31(10), 3686-3693. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b00717
  • Kalathil, S., Katuri, K. P., & Saikaly, P. E. (2019). Bacteria-Based Catalysts and Method of Making. US Patent WO2019197992A1.

Education

  • Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, South Korea, 2013
  • M.Sc., Hydrochemistry, Cochin University of Science and Technology, India, 2009