Kaustubh Bhalerao

Kaustubh Bhalerao is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His work bridges engineering, biology, and computation with applications in agricultural systems and microbiome analysis.

• Current Position: Adjunct Associate Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois (since 2011)
• Prior Position: Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois (2005-2011)
• Education: Postdoctoral Associate, Ohio State University (2004-2005)

Research Interests: Biosensors, Synthetic Biology, and Nanotechnology applied to agricultural challenges. He develops computational models for microbial systems and explores virus-based biocontrol strategies.

Recent publications highlight his work in Environmental Biotechnology (antibiotic impacts on biogas systems), Biomedical Engineering (mastitis diagnostics), and Synthetic Biology (gene circuit amplifiers). His lab employs machine learning and flow cytometry for microbiome analysis.

Teaching includes courses on biological nanoengineering (ABE 446) and agricultural principles (ABE 141).