Christian Krohn

Dr Christian Krohn a molecular ecologist and environmental biotechnologist working on anaerobic digestion, the biology that turns organic waste into renewable biogas. These living systems routinely run below potential, yet operators steer them by chemical proxies rather than the biology itself. Using long-read sequencing, meta-omics and machine learning, Christian extracts biological signals from the biomass to show how its ecology varies with season and loading rates. Capturing this variation can sharpen existing industry models and help recover more renewable biogas from waste. The aim is a ‘biomass-to-screen’ diagnostic capability that shifts the biogas sector from indirect chemical proxies toward biologically informed control.

Christian completed his PhD in Soil Science and Microbial Ecology at La Trobe University, where he investigated how soil microbial diversity mediates the breakdown of persistent organic pollutants. His work has produced 25 peer-reviewed publications (Google h-index 12) and attracted multiple institutional and national awards, including the Nancy Millis Medal and the C.G. Stephens Medal. He is an active science communicator, industry collaborator, and mentor, contributing to public engagement on the microbial foundations of a circular, low-emission bioeconomy.