Himadri Pakrasi

Himadri Pakrasi is the George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, affiliated with the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences. His research focuses on photosynthesis, systems biology, and synthetic biology, particularly in engineering cyanobacteria for bioenergy production. He leads a lab investigating molecular mechanisms of photosynthetic energy conversion, environmental responses, and strain engineering for biochemical outputs.

Dr. Pakrasi’s research interests span biochemistry, nitrogen fixation, and the integration of biological and physical sciences. His lab’s projects include studying cyanobacterial solar energy utilization, metabolic pathway optimization, and CRISPR-based genetic tools for strain modification. He teaches courses such as Regenerative Medicine: Cell-Based Therapies and Tissue Engineering and Bioenergy (Bio 4830).

• Awards:
  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology
  • Wiley Fellow, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, Munich University

His work bridges fundamental biology with applied biotechnology, emphasizing sustainable biofuel production and microbial metabolic engineering. He contributes to graduate programs in Biochemistry, Plant and Microbial Biosciences, and Molecular Genetics at Washington University.