Dimitri van der Lee

Background

About Dimitri van der Lee

Making society sustainable, while improving our quality of life”. I thought of this motto during my studies, and it has been my motivation ever since. For me, it means that I want to use my skills to move from a fossil based to a circular economy. That is why I pursue a career in biotechnology, to use microorganisms to produce drop-in chemicals, while reducing the effect on the environment. My journey started with my bachelor’s in Plant Sciences. Although I enjoyed the curriculum, I only discovered my true passion during my BSc thesis. My project involved the genetic engineering of plants. I liked the bioinformatic analysis, vector design, transformation of and working with microorganisms, molecular cloning techniques like Golden Gate cloning and CRISPR-Cas9. The multicellular plants part: not so much. I believed that the MSc Biotechnology programme may be a better fit. I confirmed this by doing a minor in Biotechnology, and switched programmes. At this point I started to really enjoy acquiring new knowledge. I am convinced that microbial production platforms can replace fossil-based production platforms to a great extent, and I love working on topics that tackle this. On the other hand, I love the process side of things as well. Setting up and optimizing process flow diagrams really intrigued me. At the start of my studies, I would have never imagined that I would be finishing a Master's programme in Biotechnology, let alone do two specialisations. Cellular and molecular biotechnology on one hand, in which I got to develop my skills in different microbial metabolisms, metabolic engineering, bioinformatics, cloning and transformation. Secondly, I chose a specialisation in process technology. I focused on topics like bioreactor design, separation processes, mass and energy fluxes, pharmaceutical biotechnology, renewable resources, and modelling in programmes like Matlab and SuperPro Designer, including CAPEX and OPEX calculations. Currently, I have over 1.5 years of laboratory experience, as I performed 2 theses and am currently performing an extended internship. I further developed the laboratory skills mentioned before. More recently, while analysing my data on Design of Experiments in R, I discovered a new interest: programming. Hours feel like minutes when analysing data in R. I hope to use my knowledge to help develop sustainable processes. If you want to know more about my experiences, feel free to reach out and connect. Available for work starting November 2023