51��

Dr Shafeer Kalathil

Assistant Professor

Department: Applied Sciences

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Dr Shafeer Kalathil is a Microbial Electrochemist and currently a Vice Chancellor’s Senior Fellow at 51��, Department of Applied Sciences. He is also a Fellow at the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (), a joint initiative between Newcastle University and 51�� funded by Research England. He has an MSc in Chemistry and, a PhD in Chemical Engineering (2013) with a research focus on Microbial Fuel Cells and Photocatalysis. After his PhD, he moved to the University of Tokyo as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellow. During his JSPS tenure, he investigated the fundamental mechanism involved in bacterial extracellular electron transfer by taking Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 as the model bacterium. After the JSPS tenure, he joined King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as a Postdoctoral Fellow. The research at KAUST was mainly on bioinspired synthesis of graphene and metal oxides using bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens (the highest electricity producing bacterium to date) for water oxidation catalysis. After winning Marie Curie Individual Fellowship, he joined at Dept. of Chemistry, the University Cambridge as a Postdoctoral Fellow. The Marie Curie research was mainly on artificial microbial photosynthesis to produce solar fuels directly from CO₂ by mimicking natural photosynthesis. Currently, he is serving as a Reviewer Panel Member of Journals RSC Advances and Frontiers in Microbiology. He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) & Biology (MRSB).

Key Publications

A three-dimensional hybrid electrode with electroactive microbes for efficient electrogenesis and chemical synthesis, Fang, X., Kalathil, S., Divitini, G., Wang, Q., Reisner, E. 3 Mar 2020, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Semi-biological approaches to solar-to-chemical conversion, Fang, X., Kalathil, S., Reisner, E. 21 Jul 2020, In: Chemical Society Reviews
Synthesis of an amorphous Geobacter -manganese oxide biohybrid as an efficient water oxidation catalyst, Kalathil, S., Katuri, K., Saikaly, P. 7 Sep 2020, In: Green Chemistry
Bioinspired Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Wrapped Geobacter sulfurreducens as a Hybrid Electrocatalyst for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction, Kalathil, S., Katuri, K., Alazmi, A., Pedireddy, S., Kornienko, N., Costa, P., Saikaly, P. 28 May 2019, In: Chemistry of Materials
Disparity of Cytochrome Utilization in Anodic and Cathodic Extracellular Electron Transfer Pathways of Geobacter sulfurreducens Biofilms, Heidary, N., Kornienko, N., Kalathil, S., Fang, X., Ly, K., Greer, H., Reisner, E. 18 Mar 2020, In: Journal of the American Chemical Society
Dual-Function Electrocatalytic and Macroporous Hollow-Fiber Cathode for Converting Waste Streams to Valuable Resources Using Microbial Electrochemical Systems, Katuri, K., Kalathil, S., Ragab, A., Bian, B., Alqahtani, M., Pant, D., Saikaly, P. 27 Jun 2018, In: Advanced Materials

Current and Recent Projects

A living bionic leaf to produce solar fuels and chemicals from carbon dioxide, Kalathil, S. (Principal Investigator), Johnson Matthey Plc, 01/02/22 - 31/01/26, £69,164.00

PGR Supervision

Muhammed Kappattu Kizhakkayil Living microbial photo-hybrids to produce solar fuels and chemicals from carbon dioxide Start Date: 01/10/2022
Cathal Burns Living Microbial Photohybrids to Produce Fatty Acids from Carbon Dioxide and Sunlight Start Date: 01/10/2022