3rd Open Plastic Symposium

Daniel Duguay

Canadian Produce Marketing Association

Ted Hsu

MPP - Kingston and the Islands

Wolfgang Streit

Prof. Wolfgang Streit is a Professor of Microbiology and Biotechnology at the University of Hamburg. He completed his PhD at Phillips-Universität Marburg (1989-94), Germany, where he worked on competitive growth and nodulation of Rhizobia. This was followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Phillips-Universität Marburg (1994-95) and UC-Davis (1995-97). Prof. Streit began his independent research career as a Research Group Leader in the Department of Genetics, University of Bielefeld, Germany (1997-98). This was followed by positions at the Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, University of Göttingen (1998-2004), and as a Professor for Enzyme Technology in the Dept. of Chemistry, Universität Duisburg-Essen (2004-2006). In 2006 he moved to his current position at Phillips-Universität Marburg, where he has held Acting and Deputy Directorships of the Institute of Molecular and Plant Sciences and Microbiology. Prof. Streit is an international leader in microbiology, genomics driven enzyme discovery, and biocatalysis. This includes plastic degrading enzymes, where his group has led milestone studies in the discovery, structure, and function of PET hydrolases. His lab also curates the PAZy database (www.pazy.eu), which lists all biochemically characterized plastic active enzymes. The Streit lab is also highly active in the study of bacterial biofilms and the impact of antibiotics and waste on microbiological diversity in wastewater. Prof. Streit is the author of more than 140 publications, 20 book chapters, and 5 patents, which collectively have been cited more than 12,500 times.