Principal Investigator

           Dr. Ramon Gonzalez is the Chief Scientific Officer of MojiaBio (a global biomanufacturing company) and the President of the Society for Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (SIMB, founded in 1949). He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

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            Dr. Gonzalez’s career has spanned the academic, private, and public sectors. Most of his academic work was conducted at Rice University, where he led the laboratory for Metabolic Engineering and Biomanufacturing and rose through the ranks from Assistant Professor to Full Professor. While at Rice, he was the founding director of the Advanced Biomanufacturing Initiative and served as Director of the Energy and Environment Initiative. More recently, Dr. Gonzalez was a Professor and Florida World Class Scholar in the Department of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering at the University of South Florida. In addition to his role as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (JIMB) from 2015 to 2023, he has served on the Editorial Boards of Science, Biotechnology Journal, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Food Biotechnology. Dr. Gonzalez also served as Program Director with the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) of the U.S. Department of Energy and with the U.S. National Science Foundation, as well as on the Board of Directors of SIMB.

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            Dr. Gonzalez has published over 100 papers in prestigious scientific journals, including Nature and its portfolio Journals (Nature Biotechnology, Nature Catalysis, Nature Metabolism, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Communications), PNAS, and Science. He is the lead inventor in 25 patents/patent applications and founded/co-founded Glycos Biotechnologies, Creo Ingredients, RBN Bio, and C1Plus Bio. He has advised major industrial bio and Fortune 500 companies and is currently a member of the scientific advisory boards of several companies and research institutions. Dr. Gonzalez has received numerous recognitions, including, Discovery Series Lecture (BioDesign Institute, Arizona State University), Tiangong Forum Lecture (TIB-CAS, China), ‘Inspiring Wisdom’ Distinguished Lecture (SKMML, SJTU, China), AIChE Division 15c Plenary Lecture, ASM Distinguished Lecturer, SDA/NBB Glycerine Innovation Research Award, and NSF CAREER Award. Dr. Gonzalez obtained a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Chile, an M.S. in Biochemical Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso (Chile), and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Central University “Marta Abreu” of Las Villas (Cuba).