“You must apply!”
Selin Kara was writing the concluding part of her Habilitation dissertation at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), when an e-mail from her former supervisor, Professor Frank Hollmann, popped up on an autumn day in 2017.
Prof. Hollmann had been her supervisor when she was a postdoc researcher in the Biocatalysis Group at the Department of Biotechnology at TU Delft in the Netherlands from 2011 to 2013. Here, she had developed a new biocatalytic concept for more efficient use of redox-enzymes as catalysts in both the pharmaceutical and the agrochemical industry.
At that time, this was a completely new approach to biocatalytic synthesis, which could have a major impact on the green transition of the pharmaceutical industry, and her research won her a 'Green Chemistry Highlight' award from the British Royal Society of Chemistry.
Selin read through the e-mail.
Hollmann referred to a job advertisement at what was then the Department of Engineering at Aarhus University. An associate professor position in bioprocess engineering was advertised, and he was convinced that Selin’s profile matched the associate professorship.
The technology was an area in significant growth, and Selin had helped kick-start it with her research at TU Delft, at TU Dresden and now in Hamburg at TUHH. And the opportunity could hardly come at a better time. Her future was open now, when she could see an end to her Habilitation (venia legendi), and she was actually looking for a university where she could establish herself. She wanted a more permanent position, where she could establish and manage a research group and focus on her research.
“OK. But I’m going to write your name as a reference," she replied.
Today, Selin Kara is a full professor at the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering at Aarhus University. She is the head of the Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing research group at the department's section for industrial biotechnology.
Selin Kara’s research is about creating green, sustainable and biodegradable chemical substances with production methods that only use natural processes and that do not generate waste. Chemical substances that can be used as sustainable alternatives in ordinary everyday products, such as pharmaceuticals, bioplastics and ingredients in cosmetics.
Landmark perspectives for an industry that is otherwise one of the world's most polluting.
"We combine chemical engineering, biotechnology, molecular biology and organic synthesis in a holistic way to optimise natural biological processes and make them as efficient and as sustainable as possible. The biggest challenge is to make the biocatalytic processes efficient enough to become more attractive than conventional production methods," says Selin Kara.
The chemical industry is in rapid growth. Global chemical production capacity in 2017 had a value of USD 5,000 billion. According to the UN, this figure is expected to double by 2030.
This is a major environmental problem, because, despite the industry's commitment to minimising its environmental impact, harmful chemicals continue to be released into the environment in large quantities.
Today, chemicals are ubiquitous in the air, water, soil, food and in human beings, but it is not just because of what ends up in nature that the industry is one of the world's most polluting. It is also due to production processes that collect raw materials from the soil and that traditionally produce more waste than the product.
And this is precisely what Selin Kara's research is about.
"We're trying to mimic natural processes that have proven effective over millions of years of evolution, and then optimise these processes so that we can use them on an industrial scale. This would significantly reduce costs, environmental impact and the size of the areas that are currently necessary for chemical production," she says.
Selin Kara was born and raised in the town of Ereğli in the Konya Province in central Anatolia in Turkey. She went to school here until she was 16, when she travelled south to a boarding school with focus on natural sciences.
Her mother was a primary and lower secondary school teacher and her father an upper secondary school teacher in chemistry, biology and physics, and it was probably their influence that sowed the seeds of Selin's natural science gateway to student life.
"I never considered anything other than going to university after upper secondary school. It was just the most natural thing in the world for me. And since I was interested in natural sciences more than the humanities and social sciences, and since I had a particular interest in chemistry, biology and mathematics, the choice was pretty obvious at the time," she explains about her choice of degree programme, which led her to a BSc in Chemical Engineering and a BSc in Food Engineering at the Middle East Technical University, METU, in Ankara, Turkey.
During her studies, she found an interest in biotechnology and biocatalysis, and with a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, she took her Master’s in biotechnology at TUHH in 2005-2007.
"I really got a taste for the world of research here, and it was deeply fascinating. I was part of a very exciting laboratory at the Institute of Technical Biocatalysis under head Professor Andreas Liese, and the whole dynamic of the research environment meant that I decided to take a PhD and continue in the academic world with biotechnological research," she says.
Her PhD project was a cross-disciplinary combination of different specialisations and techniques to design and develop biotechnological processes, from enzyme production to bioreactor design, online process monitoring and data analysis. Interdisciplinarity was necessary to synthesise chemicals in an efficient and sustainable manner.
Selin Kara defended her PhD in bioprocess technology at TUHH 2011.
After this she moved to the Department of Biotechnology at TU Delft as a postdoc.
On a rainy Thursday afternoon in March 2018, Selin Kara arrived with two research colleagues at Aarhus Central Station. She had applied for the position of associate professor at Aarhus University, and the next day she was interviewed by the department management team, and interested peers were waiting to hear more about her research.
The Department of Engineering was a rather young department. It was established in 2011, and it consolidated all of the university's research activities within the technical sciences. The opportunities for cross-disciplinary work and to influence decisions concerning both research and education at such a young engineering department appealed to her. At the same time, there were very good opportunities for research collaboration within bioprocessing and biocatalysis.
"I experienced great interest in my research from the department management team. It was very motivating, and I looked forward to my interviews on Friday. Among other things, I had to give a lecture on my current research activities and future perspectives, and I had been told that, since the semester had started and lessons were already underway, there might not be so many to hear my presentation. But as with so much else at Aarhus University, I was pleasantly surprised," she says.
In the end, they had to find a larger lecture theatre, so that Selin could talk about the possibilities and perspectives of biocatalysis. This simply reinforced her ambition to come to Aarhus to research and teach.
However, it was a challenge financially to move her laboratory in Germany and relocate it to Aarhus. In fact, it would not have been possible had Professor Lars Ottosen, head of the Department of Biotechnology and Chemical Engineering, not taken her to one side on that Friday afternoon:
"He told me about the possibilities for an AUFF Starting Grant, and that the dean and the department management team were ready to apply for the funding to help me to move to AU. It was a huge pat on the back for me and my research, and I left with an even stronger belief that it all might be possible," she says.
Selin Kara defended her Habilitation dissertation at TUHH in May 2018. Shortly afterwards, she went home to her family in Turkey to celebrate her newly acquired Habilitation degree.
And then another e-mail dropped into her in box. This time from Lars Ottosen, with news that she had received the grant from AUFF.
"It was a huge relief. The Starting Grant was absolutely crucial to my decision to move from Hamburg to Aarhus. Without it, I’d never have moved, simply because it was not financially viable. The grant gave me an opportunity to relocate my research activities and associated researchers and start my own laboratory at AU, without it taking too much time," she says and continues:
"I took several of my ongoing research projects to Aarhus, and this meant that the PhD students involved had to move too and be paid a Danish PhD salary. It would never have been possible without the AUFF Starting Grant."
Selin moved to Aarhus in July 2018. In October the same year, the laboratory was running full-time, and all four of her fellow researchers, three PhD students and one postdoc, had also moved and settled in.
Today, the laboratory is home to three postdoc researchers, six PhD students, one research assistant, one project manager and a number of Bachelor's and Master’s degree students. In addition to Selin Kara herself, of course. Selin is also currently coordinator of the EU Horizon 2020 funded project INTERfaces, which involves 10 academic organizations and 13 industrial partners.
She started out as an associate professor in 2018 and was appointed full professor on 1 February 2021. In January 2021, the Department of Engineering was closed down. Instead, four new departments were set up, including the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering.
"It's been great to be part of a young department at a university that focuses on engineering research. I look forward to continuing our research into green chemicals, chemical engineering and biotechnology and to launching a lot of new initiatives and collaborations, for example in the areas of protein technology and digitalisation. The possibilities are infinite, and as long as we’re inquisitive and creative, the answers to the world's major problems lie at our very feet."
The Aarhus University Reserarch Foundation (AUFF) employs Starting Grants for international recruitment to growth areas in order to establish new independent research areas and research groups. With the grants, AUFF wants to ensure excellent researchers good career opportunities at Aarhus University. The target group for Starting Grants is newly employed assistant professors, associate professors and professors.
