Babu Fathepure

Dr. Babu Fathepure is professor in the department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Oklahoma State University. He earned a B.Sc. in chemistry and a M.Sc. in Biochemistry from Karnataka University, Dharwad, India. He obtained Ph.D. in Environmental Microbiology from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He did his post-doctorate at Michigan State University, East Lansing and another at the University of Michigan, Ann arbor, Michigan. In addition, he was a senior scientist at Conoco and DuPont.

He has published research articles in scientific journals, mentored undergraduate and graduate students (MS and Ph.D.). He is a member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), Geological Society of America, and International Society for Microbial Ecology. He is on the editorial board of Applied and Environmental Microbiology journals. He also reviews articles for many microbiology journals. He has served on EPA-STAR Panel and NSF-GRFP panels and reviews graduate students' application for funding.

Research Interests:

Dr. Fathepure returned to academia after a three years' industry job at Conoco/Du Pont and joined the department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Oklahoma State University as an assistant professor and since he rose to the ranks of associate professor and professor. At OSU, his duties are split between teaching, scholarly activities (conducting research), and service to the society. His research is focused on understanding the diversity, ecology, physiology, genomics, and processes that microorganisms carry out in both man-made and in the natural environment. More specifically, his current research addresses microbial degradation of contaminants in soil and produced water (bioremediation), bioconversion of plant biomass into value added compounds (biofuels), and microbial oxidation of methane in oil and gas wells (climate change). Dr. Fathepure uses both cultivation-based and molecular-based (genomic, metagenomics and transcriptomic) approaches to his research that provide insights into genetic potential of organisms and molecular mechanism of processes they catalyze.