John Archer

John Archer holds a PhD in Microbial Genetics from the University of Glasgow, and following postdoctoral studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology joined the Faculty at Cambridge University in the Department of Genetics. 

In 2007 he was headhunted to lead the KAUST-Cambridge alliance programme and set up the Biological Environmental Science and Engineering division.  In 2009, he was headhunted by NUS President Shih Choon Fong to his inaugural KAUST Presential Staff.  

In 2019, John co-founded HutanBio to scale up and commercialise HBx Biofuel - a breakthrough algal biofuel platform. His mission is to decouple heavy transportation modes from fossil fuels and drive down carbon emissions from shipping, aviation and heavy land vehicles without disrupting standard operations and without compromising food resources.