Kevin Verstrepen

Kevin Verstrepen is professor in Microbial Genetics at Leuven University and serves as director of the VIB Center for Microbiology, Director of the Leuven Institute for Beer Research and Guest professor at the Tianjin Institute for Industrial Biotechnology. Verstrepen studied biological engineering at KU Leuven and MIT before setting up his lab at Harvard University in 2005 where he started using yeast as a model to study genetics and genomics and teaching fermentation technology to Harvard undergrads. In 2010, Verstrepen moved his team back to his home country Belgium, where he continues the genetics research, and also started focusing on translational aspects, generating superior yeast variants for various industries, including beer brewing. His team released a free introductory course to the science of brewing that was already followed by more than 20,000 beer enthusiasts (available at https://www.edx.org/learn/beer/ku-leuven-beer-the-science-of-brewing)