Dr. Abhishek S. Dhoble’s interview
Q: Please tell us about your background, and what led you to make a career in research and not anything else.
A: I did my B. Tech. from LIT, Nagpur which is a government institute founded in 1942 and dedicated especially to chemical engineering and allied branches such as petroleum and food processing, my father is also a graduate of the same institute. I got interested in research right from my first year and participated in various tech fests across the country, most notably I won first prize in two of these events at, IIT Kanpur, and IIT Guwahati, all this motivated me further to make a career in research. I started preparing for GRE and TOEFL in my second year, and right after my final year I joined the University of Florida in the US for masters, there I was fortunate to get an opportunity to work on a NASA funded project, they gave me a full tuition waiver and a monthly stipend which was very helpful, I did my masters in biological engineering, alongside working on my thesis project which is a part of the NASA’s future human space missions. To expand my horizons and I applied and fortunately got an admit at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign which is considered amongst the best in this field, I did my doctoral thesis on Microbiome Dynamics.
Q: How is the research being conducted in the US different from India and how can we promote research and encourage more students to take up research in India?
A: I feel there is a difference in the research culture in India and the US. In my opinion, India has great potential to succeed. To promote research, I feel we should include research component/project type evaluations in the academic curriculum to encourage more students to take up research.
Q: Research seems fascinating at the beginning but students generally drop the idea later because they don’t possess the required knowledge and the mindset. What according to you are the ideal requirements or a mind-set that a student should have before taking up research?
A: It is okay to be confused at the beginning but first of all one must understand what research means. If you decode the word, it’s “research” that is finding the truth which already exists. First of all, one must be very curious, one should always ask questions in order to seek the truth. Secondly, one needs to understand that for any field, research is an integral part, for example consulting firms hire candidates with a Ph.D. in science (alongside candidates with traditional MBA background), simply because they know that it’s the analytical skills that the person has developed over these years which can be used to solve even complicated business problems. Lastly, one should have hypothesis-driven thinking, for any scientific research, this approach is always required.
Q: Could you please tell us about your research interests and also throw some light on your current project JEEWANU?
A: There are various research projects that I have worked on, which are all connected to each other and are applications of the main theme i.e. ‘Microbiome Engineering’. Microbiome means the collection of various microorganisms working together to deliver a certain output. Nowadays, industries are adopting microbes for producing chemicals, unlike traditional methods which may not be energy efficient and may not be environmentally friendly. So, now we are producing chemicals using microbes in a more sustainable way. So this is my main theme of research which is to understand microbiome dynamics and how can we engineer that to the best of our uses.
JEEWANU (Judicious Engineering of the microbiome for Enhanced sanitation and Water resources Agriculture, health and National wealth Upliftment) is one such project under this research area. In this, we are touching upon water resources, agriculture, and health sectors. We are also diversifying into other areas as well. One such area is food processing, in which we trying to find out how microbial processes can be used for efficient food processing or agro-processing and how solid-state fermentation works.
Q: What is the future of biotechnology and what new opportunities are opening up in this field?
A: I feel this sector provides a huge amount of opportunities as there are many things yet to be discovered and currently under work in this sector. This is where I feel a BITSian can stand and take up the opportunity. They have all the facilities and already raw talent inside them, they should take the initiative, BITSians are known for their entrepreneurial mind-set.
The time is changing fast and biotech is emerging as an important sector. There are many examples in India itself, such as Biocon and Serum technologies, Pune (which has taken lead in manufacturing vaccines during this pandemic). Companies have realized that in the long run it is beneficial to be sustainable and Biotech can help in that, this field is an emerging field which is why there is very good scope for a chemical engineer in this field. The perception is also fast-changing.
Q: What is your advice for the chemical engineering students on campus?
A: First of all, I want to say that students should be proud of their A1 Branch, Chemical engineering is an evergreen branch and there are a lot of opportunities coming up for the same, this pandemic has made people realize and even increased the importance of chemical engineering and allied branches. Students should make full use of the facilities available at BITS and try to explore new things. The undergraduate student should focus on skill-building, both technical and soft skills as they will help you throughout your career. Always remember that real learning happens outside the classroom and I believe BITSians are very talented and have a huge potential in them and if they make the right use of the freedom that they have been given, wonders will happen.
