Faculty of Science and Technology

Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences

Dr. Bidyut Mohapatra

Dr. Bidyut Mohapatra

Lecturer in Microbiology

Department: BCS

Qualifications

Ph.D. in Environmental Microbiology

Research Areas

Molecular microbial ecology of natural and engineered environments; Microbial source tracking; Astrobiology and planetary protection; Integrated OMICS (metagenomics, metaproteomics and metatranscriptomics) approaches for production of biofuels and industrially-important enzymes.Bidyut has received his Ph.D. degree in Environmental Microbiology from Kochi University, Japan. Prior to joining UWI, he has worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA) on spacecraft microbial ecology; Dauphin Island Sea Lab (USA) on proteomics of bloom-forming polar algae; National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Japan) on efficient utilization of lignocellulosic wastes using metagenomics and directed evolution approaches; and CANMET-Natural Resources Canada (Canada) on microbiologically influenced corrosion of oil and gas pipelines. 

Teaching Areas

  • Microbial Ecology
  • Eukaryotic Microbiology
  • Methods in Microbiology

Publications

Mohapatra, B.R. and La Duc, M.T. (2012). Evaluation of fluorescence in situ hybridization to detect encapsulated Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 spores released from poly(methylmethacrylate). Microbiology and Immunology 56, 40–47.

Gould, W.D., King, M., Mohapatra, B.R., Cameron, R.A., Kapoor, A. and Koren, D.W. (2012). A critical review on destruction of thiocyanate in mining effluents. Minerals Engineering 34, 38–47.

Mohapatra, B.R., Rellinger, A.N., Kieber, D.J. and Kiene, R.P. (2013). Comparative functional characteristics of dimethylsulfoniopropionate lyases extracted from polar and temperate species of Phaeocystis. Aquatic Biology 18, 185–195.

Mohapatra, B.R. and La Duc, M.T. (2013). Detecting the dormant: a review of recent advances in molecular techniques for assessing the viability of bacterial endospores. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 97, 7963–7975.

La Duc, M.T. and Mohapatra, B.R. (2014). A novel protocol for decoating and permeabilizing bacterial spores for epifluorescent microscopy (novel technology reporting number-48035). NASA Tech Briefs 38(1), 40–41. 

Mohapatra, B.R., Rellinger, A.N., Kieber, D.J. and Kiene, R.P. (2014). Kinetics of DMSP lyases in whole cell extracts of four Phaeocystis species: response to temperature and DMSP analogs. Journal of Sea Research 86, 110–115.