Kaloyan Petrov is a Professor, DSc, in the Department of Biochemical Engineering of the Institute of Chemical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He completed his MS at the Technical University of Sofia and PhD and DSc degrees at the Institute of Chemical Engineering. From 2014-2022, Prof. Petrov headed the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Reactors at the same institute; since 2022, he has been the Director of the Institute of Chemical Engineering at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. His work is devoted to the optimization of fermentation processes using bioprocessing and metabolic engineering. Prof. Petrov's interests are in biotechnology and bioprocess engineering: fundamental and applied research in biotechnology, application of bioprocess and metabolic engineering approaches, and development of methods for microbial conversion of new, renewable energy sources. Other areas of his interest are the microbial production of metabolites of industrial importance—enzymes, polysaccharides with prebiotic action, low-molecular compounds with wide applications, and biofuels—the creation and development of new methods for controlling and managing microbial conversion processes. He is working on using new bacterial isolates and recombinant strains as producers in processes for the synthesis of low-molecular compounds (butanediol, butanol, and ethanol) through the conversion of waste and renewable substrates such as plant biomass containing cellulose and hemicelluloses.