Geoffrey Hamer

Hon. Secretary, Biofocus Foundation
Ph.D. Biochemical Engeneerig (1962), B.Sc. Chemical Engeneering (1959)

Upon graduating from Birmingham in 1962, I joined the Microbiological Technology Unit at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, initially as a NATO Fellow for two years and, subsequently, as a Swedish Technical Research Council Research Associate for a further three and a half years. In 1968 I joined Shell Research Ltd. at Sittingbourne, UK, first as a Senior Research Scientist and then for a further eight years as Head of Shell Research’s Fermentation (Bioprocess) Research Division. Upon leaving Shell in 1978, I was appointed Principal Scientist at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) in Kuwait for two years.

I resigned in 1980 to take up an appointment as Professor of Environmental Biotechnology at ETH Zurich, Switzerland and Head of the Applied Microbiology Department at EAWAG (the Swiss Government Aquatic Sciences Laboratory) at Dubendorf. After some twelve years, I was, in 1992, appointed Professor of Chemical Engineering and Head of the Chemical Engineering Department at UCD in Dublin, Ireland, remaining in that position until my retirement at the end of 2001, where-up I was given the title, emeritus Professor.

In 2002, I was appointed Hon. Secretary of the Biofocus Foundation. My whole career has been devoted to research and development work in applied microbiology, biotechnology and bioprocess engineering, teaching in aquatic sciences, applied microbiology, chemical engineering and bioprocess engineering and, inevitably, much too much administrative work. Throughout my career, I have undertaken consulting and examining work on an international scale. For my research contributions to both industry and academia, I was awarded the Donald Medal of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in 2006.