Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hema Ramachandran completed her Bachelor of Sciences (Hons) degree in Applied Biology (Biotechnology) at the University of Science, Malaysia (USM). Then, she was awarded USM Fellowship to pursue her doctoral degree on the Microbial Biotechnology at USM. She developed interest in microbial biopolymer which led to studies on the biosynthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from novel renewable materials. Upon completing her PhD, she joined Centre for Chemical Biology, USM as a research officer and focused on establishing a systematic microbial cell culture collection.
Dr. Hema is currently a Senior Lecturer at the School of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Integrated Life Sciences, Quest International University Perak. Her current research focuses on food packaging and medical application of polyhydroxyalkanoate (microbial polyester). She has acquired Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) as Principle Investigator, supervises undergraduate and master graduate students and is the author of several scientific publications.