About Elias Hakalehto
E. Elias Hakalehto, PhD, is an Adjunct Professor in both the Universities of Helsinki (agroecological microbiology) and Eastern Finland (biotechnical microbial analytics). He has familiarized himself with the physiological and clinical role of microbes in the aetiology of diseases. In the industrial microbiology field, he has designed biorefinery processes for converting side streams into valuable chemicals, energy gases such as methane and hydrogen, and organic fertilizers. His R&D company Finnoflag Oy has been active for 25 years. It has conducted more than 100 projects for various clients in industries, research institutes, the clinical and food sectors, and the authorities. He is the vice president of the International Society of Environmental Indicators and chaired the 22nd international conference of the society in Helsinki, Finland, in August 2017. He has authored numerous research papers, about 80 original patent applications, and over 100 book chapters for international publishers, such as Springer, Wiley, CRC Press, Elsevier and others. He has edited the Microbiological Hygiene series for Nova Scientific Publishers Inc., N.Y., the USA. Elias Hakalehto is the inventor of PMEU (Portable Microbe Enrichment Unit), developed for the enhanced patient samples analysis, quantifying probiotic effect, and monitoring metabolic processes and the microbiome. His main interests are microbial communities and real-time activities in microbial interactions. Globally, he has pursued microbiology and biotechnology to solve the big issues of our time, such as environmental changes, nutrition, and health balance. He was elected a Fellow member of the International Society for Development and Sustainability (ISDS) (Japan) in 2021. He has also worked as the editor and principal author of the book "Microbiology of Food Quality - Challenges in Food Production and Distribution During and After the Pandemics", scheduled to be published in Dec 2021 by Walter De Gruyter GmbH publishing house.
