Balaji Venkatesagowda
| Balaji Venkatesagowda | |
|---|---|
| Died | 2021-05-14 India |
| Occupation | biochemical researcher |
| Employer | Lakehead University |
| Partner | |
Balaji Venkatesagowda (died 14 May 2021) was an Indian-born researcher who worked at the Biorefining Research Institute at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay from 2010 to 2015, first as a postdoctoral fellow and then as a research associate.[1]
Research at Lakehead
Balaji came to Thunder Bay from India in 2010 as a postdoctoral research fellow. His first project, funded by a five-month NSERC Engage grant, looked at making biodiesel from industrial hemp seed oil and showed that the idea worked. When it ended he stayed on, and his skills were important in the early screening of more than 400 fungal isolates from the boreal forest for the ability to live on lignin alone. With fellow postdoctoral researcher Iryna Bashtan-Kandybovich he found that about 100 isolates could grow on lignin and that 30 of them released methanol from Kraft lignin, evidence that these fungi could strip methyl groups from it.[1]
According to the supervisor who wrote the tribute, he was the most productive postdoctoral researcher in the institute, with about ten co-authored papers and two more that he wrote independently on the lignin work. He was remembered as humble, sociable and never angry.[1]
Later life and death
Despite his qualifications Balaji could not find work in Canada and went back to India with his wife and two young children. He died on 14 May 2021 in India of complications from a COVID-19 infection, and is survived by his wife Uma and the two children.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Entry for Balaji Venkatesagowda, "In Memoriam", Retirees' Association of Lakehead University, https://www.lakeheadretirees.ca/in-memoriam/ (accessed 31 October 2026). Archived copy on datum.locker.