Associate Professor Noppol Leksawasdi, PhD received the Royal Thai Government Scholarship) (Ministry of Science and Technology) to undertake his Bachelor and Doctorate Degrees at The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia on Bioprocess Engineering / Biotechnology between 1994 – 2004 during which he earned several awards such as The Outstanding Student (Science Stream), Cargill Australia Prize, and The University Medal. He currently has more than 40 publications in the national / international refereed journals, 3 pending national patents, and up to 30 copyrighted computer programs designed in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) for Microsoft^® EXCEL. He is presently tenured by the School of Agro-Industry, Faculty of Agro-Industry, Chiang Mai University, Thailand since 2004 and now served as a Head, School of Agro-Industry since 2011 as well as the Director of Bioprocess Research Cluster (BRC) since 2014. His past experiences on the administrative positions includes Assistant Dean (2005 – 2009) and Associate Dean on Research, Academic Services and Foreign Affairs (2009 - 2011). Chiang Mai University has awarded both a Master thesis (Mr.Warayut Natikarn) and a Doctorate thesis (Dr.Julaluk Tangtua) under his direct supervision as of “Very Good” and “Excellent” qualities in 2011 and 2015, respectively. His research interests include ethanol production from agricultural materials and biotransformation of pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) enzyme to produce phenylacetylcarbinol (PAC), enzyme modelling / simulation, and zero waste process. He has successfully applied for funding and served as one of two project overseers of an International Symposium entitled “Biofuels from Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Wastes” during 24^th – 27^th May 2010 and “APEC-ATCWG Biofuels Network Annual Symposium and Biotrade/Technical Training Workshop” during 30^th May – 4^th June 2011 from Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). The notable research grants that he has received and participated as either research project/program leader or co-project leader included; (1) Research Projects involving ethanol and PDC production by utlizing fresh/dried longan or agricultural biomaterials from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) during fiscal year 2006 – 2015; (2) Research Project: Validation of Longan Sugar Production Technology and Properties on the Quality, Health and Commercial Potential Aspects from Agricultural Research and Development Agency (ARDA) as well as the Longan Extract Demonstration Plant from the Strategic Office of Upper Northern Region I for fiscal year 2011 - 2013; and (3) National Research University (NRU) Research Project:  The Production of Biofuels and High Value Chemicals from Agricultural and Agro -Industrial Waste Materials Using Complete Zero Waste Process from Higher Education Commission (HEC) and NRCT for fiscal year 2011 – 2015.

Official Web Page: http://www.agro.cmu.ac.th/Research/WebAjarn/nl.html