Wim Soetaert, the founder of InBio.be, is an industrial biotechnology and biorefining specialist, who spent 13 years in the carbohydrate processing industry as a research director in Germany and France, for the sugar group Pfeifer & Langen and the wheat processing company Chamtor, before joining UGent as a full professor.

He has been active at InBio.be in the field of industrial biotechnology and downstream processing, specifically in the field of biosynthesis of specialty carbohydrate and biosurfactants. He has coordinated several (inter)national research projects on these subjects, focusing on strain engineering, process development and scale-up. He has a strong industrial drive and aims to take the necessary actions to bring new and promising technologies to the market.

He is currently lecturing the courses “Microbiology”, “Industrial biotechnology” and “Industrial fermentation processes and downstream processing” at Ghent University, he tries to inspire his students on the potential and importance of white biotechnology.

Next to his academic activities, Prof. Soetaert is the director of the the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, an open innovation pilot plant for the development of biobased products, and the co-founder Inbiose and AmphiStar, two spin-off companies of Ghent University active in the field of human milk oligosaccharides and biosurfactants, respectively. Both spin-offs were created based on research results obtained at InBio.be.