Innovations in Bioproducts – with Dr. Manjusri Misra

Date and Time

Location

Noble Hall (formerly Otello’s)
2273 Royal Windsor Dr,
Oakville, ON L6J 7V7

Details

Working towards a Circular Economy through the Innovation of Bioproducts

This presentation will provide an introduction of the bioproduct research and development conducted at the University of Guelph and how it supports transition toward a Circular Economy. The concept of a Circular Economy envisions a “waste-free” world and looks to foster environmental, societal, and economic change through a closed resource loop system (take-make-use-reuse/recycle/biodegrade) compared to the current linear economic approach (take-make-use-dispose).The research focusses on improving the sustainability of plastic technologies for both durable and single use applications.
 
Renewable resources from non-food agricultural residues and industrial waste stream feedstocks can be used to fabricate new biobased products. These bioproducts are innovated for a variety of applications, with the overall goal to reduce landfilling, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Applications of our materials are being developed for green and compostable packaging, light-weighting automotive parts, and various consumer products.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY – Dr. Manjusri Misra

Dr. Misra is a professor in the School of Engineering and holds a joint appointment in the Dept. of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK). Dr. Misra’s current research focuses on novel bio-based composites and nanocomposites from agricultural and forestry resources for the sustainable bio-economy targeting the development of bio-based and eco-friendly alternatives to the existing petroleum-based products. She has been an editor of many journals and is currently one of the Associate Editors of the journal Advanced Science Letters and serves in the editorial board of Journal of Applied Polymer Science. She was the President of the BioEnvironmental Polymer Society (BEPS) in 2009.
 
In 2012, Dr. Misra received the prestigious Jim Hammar Memorial Award from BEPS and University of Guelph’s Innovation of the year award in 2016 for the involvement in developing the compostable single-serve coffee pods.
 
 
In 2017, Professor Misra has also received the Andrew Chase Division Award in Chemical Engineering from the Forest Bioproducts Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In 2019, Professor Misra was awarded with the Woman of Distinction on Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) from the Guelph YWCA-YMCA.

Events Archive