After seeing a bacteria-powered battery for the first time, Roland became interested in the different industrial applications of biotechnology to solve global issues. During his career, he has dived into different fields of biotechnology. His very first research project was in the field of drug discovery (Kitasato University, Japan), where he was isolating drugs from the soil that he collected during his travels all over Japan. The isolated drugs were then tested for their efficacy on various drug-resistant pathogens. He then diverged to the field of bioleaching (Curtin University, Australia), where he was looking at the genetic cause of the salt tolerance in the acidophilic yet halotolerant Acidihalobacter aeolianus. For his honours project in geomicrobiology (CSIRO, Australia), he investigated the role of Fusarium oxysporum in the geochemical cycling of calcium and gold. Currently, He's working in the Fritz lab on a synthetic biology project, where he aim to produce biodegradable plastics from carbon dioxide using engineered and evolved Vibrio natriegens in collaboration with Woodside Energy.

With a background in genetics, microbial biotechnology, biogeochemistry and synthetic biology, Roland has a wider interest in the field of biotechnology, including but not limited to:

• Engineering microorganisms for bioproduction of valuable biochemicals (e.g. PHA)
• Discovery of bioactive molecules
• Adaptive evolution
• Microbial bioleaching
• Biogeochemical cycling of nutrients