Robert Kourist studied Biochemistry from 2000 to 2006 at the Universities of Greifswald (Germany) and Oviedo (Spain). During his Ph.D. in the group of Prof. Uwe Bornscheuer in Greifswald (2006-2008) he developed enzymatic reactions for the synthesis of optically pure tertiary alcohols. In 2009, he went for a postdoctoral stay to the laboratory of Prof. Kenji Miyamoto at the Keio University in Yokohama, Japan. From 2012 to 2016 he was Juniorprofessor for Microbial Biotechnology at the Ruhr-University Bochum and was appointed as professor and head of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology at the Graz University of Technology in January 2017. Robert Kourist received the DSM Science and Technology Award North (2009) and a 1st prize in the VentureCup Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (2009). In 2016, he became a member of the Young College of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.

Dr. Kourist’s research is dedicated to the combination of chemical and biological catalysts, with a special focus on the combination of enzymes with transition metal catalysts. A second line of research aims at the utilization of chemolitothrophic and autotrophic microorganisms for the production of useful chemicals.