In the beginning stages of Venkatesh balan research career, he was working on bio-inorganic chemistry of hemoglobin and bioluminescent properties of luciferases. In the last five year, his research expertise is towards process optimization to convert lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels using Ammonia Fiber Expansion pretreatment techniques, enzyme hydrolysis and ethanol fermentation using different microbes. In addition, he have expertise in economic analysis of mixed integrated farming with energy operations. He have a post-doctoral and research associate experience of over 12 years working in four different laboratories and since July 2009, he have been the research associate professor in Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science at Michigan State University. He has published over 60 publications and filed 12 provisional patents.