Professor Babu’s current research focuses on advanced polymeric materials, which addresses key global challenges of functional materials, polymer composites, clean water, biobased polymers from renewable resources and production of chemical building blocks using waste as a resource. He has over 17 years of experience in polymer processing, membrane separation, nanocomposites, biodegradable polymers and polymer characterisation. He worked in Clariant Gmbh and Asahi-Kasei Corporation, Japan before joining Trinity College Dublin, in 2003.
Currently he is a partner in BBI-JU AGRICHEMWHEY flagship project focusing developing the packaging products based on second generation PLA and he is recently funded with EU-China project Mix-Up investigating the conversion of mixed waste plastic to value added products. He is at the forefront of industrial research representing TCD in BiOrbic Bioeconomy SFI Research Centre, AMBER Centre of Excellence in Material Science, DPTC - Dairy Processing Technology Centre, and FHI - Food for Health Ireland.
He is also a co-founder of two spinout companies: Bioplastech Limited (2009), and Selfsense Technologies (2014), and a founding member of Irish Bioeconomy Foundation (IBF). He was recipient of the Trinity Innovator award for 2018.