Dr. Kyle J. Lauersen is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering and leads the Sustainable & Synthetic Biotechnology group at KAUST. Since 2023, he has also been an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI) at Arizona State University, U.S. In 2024, Professor Lauersen won the KAUST 2024 Distinguished Teaching Award for his innovative contributions to the Bioengineering and Biosciences programs. His research group at KAUST focuses on innovations in algal metabolic and bioprocess engineering technologies. In 2014, Professor Lauersen received his Doctorate of Natural Sciences at Bielefeld University in Germany   after receiving his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Science and Education from Queen’s University in Canada. He is an editorial board member of several journals including Critical Insights in Plant Science, New Biotechnology, Blue Biotechnology, Planta and has served as a guest editor for special issues in Algal Research. 

In addition to engineering process design for algal cultivation optimization, Professor Lauersen’s team applies the tools collectively known as “synthetic biology” to optimize genetic tools for algal hosts with the aim of making them produce desired (high value) products. Why? Because algae convert low-value chemicals found in waste-streams, like nitrogen, phosphorous and CO2 into higher-order chemicals in their biomass, by adding new chemicals to their biology, the value attainable from light-driven algal waste conversion concepts can be increased. His lab has also founded and curates the KSA Living Library of >150 local algal isolates from the Arabian Peninsula.