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Fueling Change With Renewable Energy
April 26-27, 2007
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ACES Library, Information and Alumni Center
1101 S. Goodwin Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
Biographies
Charles A. Abbas
Archer Daniels Midland, Co.
Charles A. Abbas received his B. S. in Microbiology from U of MN; his M.S. in Microbiology from U of MT and his PhD in Microbiology & Cell Science with Biochemistry as supporting area from the U of Florida. His undergraduate and graduate training emphasized the use of a wide range of enzymes and microbial systems in fermentations. For almost 30 years one of the primary areas of his focus has been carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry as it relates to pretreatment, hydrolysis and fermentation of biomass and lignocellulosic feedstocks. He has spent the last 20 years working in industry, first as a Senior Scientist in Industrial Microbiology at Difco R & D in Ann Arbor, MI and then at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Research in Decatur, IL. At ADM he started as a Group Leader in Process Research, then became Manager of Fermentation and Process Research and since 2001 has been the Director of Yeast & Renewables Research. His most recent research areas have focused on the bioprocessing of commodity crops and their residues to produce high value-added products; the development of yeast strains for industrial fermentations; and the large-scale fermentation production of ethanol, polymers, amino acids, enzymes, vitamins, carotenoids and organic acids using bacterial, fungal, and algal systems. In the early 1990’s, Dr. Abbas coined the use of the term biorefinery and promoted it to the Dept. of Energy (DOE) to illustrate the current processing and fractionation of the commodity crops corn and soybeans into a great variety of products. He further extended the term to include the refining of biomass feedstocks as Advanced Biorefinery and later to Yeast Biorefineries. Dr. Abbas was the recipient of The Alltech Medal of Excellence for Alcohol Production in 2001; has served in 2005 as Division O Chairman of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM); has given numerous talks at national and international meetings and has chaired sessions at these meetings on topics that ranged from yeast biotechnological applications, emerging biorefineries, food security, and system biology. He has authored & coauthored more than 20 publications, review articles, book chapters, and over 50 abstracts, as well as over a dozen patent & patent applications.
Hans Blaschek
CABER, Institute for Genomic Biology
Hans Blaschek received his Ph.D. in Food Science (Microbiology), at Rutgers University in 1980, his M.S. in Food Science at Rutgers University in 1977 and his B.A. in Biological Sciences at Rutgers College in 1974. He presently serves as the Interim Director for the Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research (CABER), University of Illinois where he is responsible for leading planning efforts for the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory. In addition, Hans holds the position of Theme Leader of Molecular Bioengineering of Biomass Conversion Research Theme with the Institute for Genomic Biology.
He serves as an Assistant Dean, Biobased Research Initiatives in the Office of Research, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois. He served as the Interim Head of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois from 200 0 - 2002. He has served as a Professor of Food Microbiology/Biotechnology since 1991 in the same department. His research areas include: Genetic manipulation of microorganisms for biotechnological applications, examination of dry milling co-products as substrates for fermentation to value-added products, development of an integrated fermentation system for solvent production and recovery, pathogen transmission on minimally processed foods.
Hans served for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as the Value-Added/Biofuels Panel
Manager for NRI Competitive Grants Program from 1994-1995. He has also consulted on Biomass Conversion systems for Dupont and served as a Research Collaborator and Consultant for Mitsubishi Chemical and Research Institute Technology for Earth (RITE), Kyoto, Japan since 1994. He has chaired many sessions for symposia, including the Bio2006, “Adding Value to the Biorefinery: The Midwest Consortium for Sustainable Biobased Products and Energy”, that was held in Chicago, IL. Another symposium he organized was the “UIUC Bioenergy Symposium: Focus on the Future of Biofuels and Chemicals”, which was held in Urbana, IL May, 2006.
Jim Breson
EBI Project General Manager, BP Energy Biosciences Institute
Jim Breson completed a B.S. (’75) and M.S. in Nuclear Engineering (’76) at Iowa State before working five years in nuclear plant design, construction and operation. He joined BP in 1982 with assignments of increasing responsibility in production, operations, strategic planning, and project management. Mr. Breson’s international postings included Business Development Manager in The Netherlands, Asset Manager in Norway, Mergers and Acquisitions in London and President of BP Exploration and Production Co. in China. In 2003, Mr. Breson became Director of the BP Projects Academy, a joint venture with MIT to optimize delivery of Major Projects. Mr. Breson has project expertise in concept selection, program definition, economic evaluation and commercial structures. In 2006 he assumed responsibility for the design and execution of BP’s $500 million Energy Biosciences Institute.
John Clifton-Brown
University of Wales, U.K.
John Clifton-Brown started to work on Miscanthus in Ireland in 1990 by planting one of the first Miscanthus trials for biomass in Europe on his parents' farm. Between 1993 and 1997 he worked on a PhD centred on temperature limited growth in Miscanthus at Trinity College Dublin with Prof. Mike Jones. From 1997 until 2000 he worked at the University of Hohenheim ( Stuttgart) as a post-doctoral researcher. He was responsible for the technical co-ordination of the European Miscanthus Improvement project, completed in September 2000. Between 2000 and 2001 he was a teaching assistant to Prof. Mike Jones in Trinity College Dublin. Between 2002 and 2004 he acted as project leader/site manager on two projects aimed at quantifying the Green House Gas fluxes from differentially managed Irish grass and arable lands. In August 2004 he was appointed project leader for the 'Genetic improvement of Miscanthus in the UK' and is now based in IGER, Aberystwyth in the UK.
The picture was taken while on Miscanthus safari in Taiwan in November 2006. It shows Miscanthus spp. with a plant height of near 4.8m growing at 2108 m above sea level in Taiwan. Photographed: Drs. Yu-Chung Chiang ( Pintung University) and John Clifton-Brown (IGER). Photo by Dr. Lin Huang (IGER).
Paul Carver
BICAL, UK
Paul Carver holds a PhD on the environmental physiology of Miscanthus production. Joined BICAL in 2000, currently the commercial director, responsible for end market development in the UK and EU. BICAL Ltd, established in 1998, commercially developed Miscanthus as the preferred biomass energy crop. Currently producers of Miscanthus and associated products across the UK and parts of the EU. BICAL have developed a fully mechanised production system for the crop from establishment to end use processing. Current projects range from fuels for heating and co-firing production through to development of second generation use, such as bio-ethanol and other industrial feedstocks.
Web: www.bical.net
Patrick Chapman
UIUC
Patrick Chapman is Grainger Associate and Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a co-founder of SmartSpark Energy Systems, Inc. He received a Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2000, and the Bachelor's and Master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1996 and 1997. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, and a Member-at-Large for the IEEE Power Electronics Adcom. He has received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award. He was named the Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer in 2006. His research interests within power electronics include integrated design, electromechanics, automated modeling, hybrid energy systems, and energy harvesting.
Jose Francisco Davos
Dedini Corporation, Brazil
Jose Francisco Davos is a Mechanical Engineer who graduated in 1978 at São Paulo University. He has an MBA in Industrial Administration in 1982 and an MBA in Busniness Management at Esamc - in 2006. He started his career at General Motors Training program and worked as an engineer at Confab Industrial up to 1981. He was an Import and Export Manager of Cotia Trading up to 1989 and Commercial Director of Cosipa Integrated Steel Mill up to 1993, then Director of Baker Hughes Oil up to 1999. He is a Sênior VP with Dedini Industrias de Base since 2000 in the Sugar And Ethanol Division. Davos is a Member of ISST, the American Chamber of Commerce, ABIMAQ, and ABDIB.
Frank Dohleman
UIUC
Frank Dohleman received a B.S in General Biology with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Illinois in 2001, and from there became a technician on the SoyFACE project (www.soyface.uiuc.edu). That experience allowed him to explore many different aspects of global change and its impacts on the plant world. After three years as a technician, he worked in the PACLAB and on the Miscanthus project (http://miscanthus.uiuc.edu) for nine months before beginning a graduate program in the Plant Biology department in August of 2005. The focus of his research is to determine photosynthetic mechanisms which could account for the yield difference between Miscanthus and Switchgrass. He plans to use diurnal photosynthesis measurements, coupled with A/Ci and A/Q measurements to help explain differences in carbon assimilation between the two species. He will also use biochemical techniques to determine carbon and nitrogen budgets of Miscanthus and Switchgrass on a diurnal time scale. Eventually, this will help make the vision of a cleaner, more energy efficient U.S. into a reality.
Vernon R. Eidman
University of Minnesota
Vernon R. Eidman is Professor Emeritus and was a faculty member of the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota from June 1975 through December 2006, where his responsibilities included undergraduate and graduate teaching, research, and extension programs. He served as head of the department from 1998 to 2004. His area of specialization is production economics, agribusiness management, and renewable energy. He is the author of more than 150 articles, chapters and books on farm and risk management, technology assessment, strategic management of agribusiness firms, structural change in agriculture, and renewable energy. His current research focuses on the economics of ethanol production, economics of biorefining, and the potential for energy production from agricultural biomass. A native of Illinois, Vernon received his BS and MS degrees from the University of Illinois, and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965. He was a member of the faculty at Oklahoma State University from 1964 to 1975.
John Ferrell
U.S. Department of Energy
John Ferrell is a valued member of the Department of Energy Office of the Biomass Program under Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. He has served as the designated Federal officer for the Biomass Technical Advisory Committee which oversees programs at DOE, USDA, and other agencies with biomass program activities. Mr. Ferrell is currently the Team Leader for Feedstock Interface R&D, as well as the Thermochemical Conversion (gasification and pyrolyis) and Sugar Platforms (fermentation-based) that form the foundation for the development of high-valued products and fuels with the ultimate goal of developing integrated biorefineries. Mr. Ferrell also serves as a member of the California Biomass Collaborative Executive Board. In previous DOE assignments Mr. Ferrell was responsible for the planning, development, and management of R&D programs leading to the establishment of technologies that lowered the cost of producing competitive alternative transportation fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel. Mr. Ferrell has been actively involved with developing a closer partnership between USDA and DOE. Research directed by Mr. Ferrell at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USDA, and selected land grant universities led to the development and deployment of over 100,000 acres of short rotation hybrid poplars for the production of fiber and energy.
Claudio Alejandro Estrada Gasca
Centro de Investigación en Energía, Mexico
Claudio Estrada received his B.S. in Physics from the School of Science of the National University of México (UNAM) in 1978. He received his Masters and Ph D. in Mechanical Engineering from New Mexico State University in 1983 and 1986 respectively.
Since June of 1988 he works at the National University of México (UNAM) as a faculty member. Currently he has the rank of “Titular” Researcher Level C, the highest tenured position for researchers, at the Center for Energy Research (CIE) of UNAM. He is appointed full professor in the Engineering Graduate Program of UNAM with specialty in Energy and is a member of the Solar Concentration research group of the Energy Systems Department at CIE. As a member of this research group, he studies transport phenomena in solar concentrating systems. The areas of academic interest are addressed to solve problems in heat transfer as conduction-convection and concentrated solar radiation in receivers, concentrated solar radiative flux, natural convection in cavities, systems for direct energy conversion and photocatalysis. He has also do research in simulating solar thermo-power generating systems.
He has published more than 150 research papers in national and international congresses, as well as in peer-review journals. He has organized courses, seminaries and congresses, as well as having been an invited guest speaker at over 50 conferences and seminars. He has directed 30 thesis (12 undergraduate, 11 masters and 7 doctorates). He is a member of the National Research System of Mexico since 1987, where he holds the rank of Level III, the highest rank before emeritus.
He is a member of the Mexican Physics Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the International Solar Energy Society, the Mexican Science Academy and the Engineering Academy. He has been a member of Mexico's Solar Energy National Association since 1983 and he has been General Secretary, Vice-president and President of this organization. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Solar Energy of the International Solar Energy Society. He has obtained many awards and prices among them the “León Bialik Price for technological innovation” 2001. Since December 2004 he is the director of the Center for Energy Research at UNAM.
Bruce Hannon
Department of Geography
Bruce Hannon is professor of Geography and Jubilee Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. He has a PhD in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Illinois, Urbana in 1970. His research has covered many areas including the allocation of energy from the ground through the economy into the myriad of goods and services produced by that economy. The basis for this research was to compare alternative forms of consumption to quantify the potential for energy conservation. Over the last two decades his work has focused on dynamic modeling of biological and economic system, from the cell to the ecosystem, from the firm to the economy. This work has resulted in many books, papers and courses. He was winner of the first prize on the limits to growth from the Club of Rome in 1975.
Alan C. Hansen
UIUC
Alan C. Hansen received his PhD from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, where he joined the Department of Agricultural Engineering in 1979 as a faculty. In 1999 he accepted a research and teaching position at the University of Illinois in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. His major fields of research have been diesel engines and biofuels, as well as machinery systems analysis, modeling and automation. In the biofuels area he has carried out research into the utilization of ethanol-diesel blends, biodiesel fuel and synthetic liquid fuels derived from coal. At present he is collaborating with the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at the University of Illinois on two U.S. Department of Energy sponsored projects focusing on the development of advanced biofuel combustion engines.
Emily Heaton
CERES
Emily Heaton gained her Ph.D. (2006) in Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois where she pioneered research comparing the biomass production of Miscanthus and Switchgrass as energy crops in the U.S. While there she helped in establishing and co-ordinating a multidisciplinary special research initiative that has provided the foundation for establishing Illinois as a leader in the research and development of biomass energy crops. Emily also assisted on the family farm in Monticello, IL which currently includes the largest private stands of Miscanthus in the US.
Emily is now Manager of Energy Crop Product Development for Ceres, Inc. Ceres is the leading developer of high-yielding energy crops that can be planted as feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol production. Its development efforts cover switchgrass, Miscanthus, poplar and other energy crops. Founded in 1997 as a plant genomics company, Ceres holds the largest proprietary collection of fully sequenced plant genes, including more than 75,000 genes and 10,000 gene promoters. The privately held company also licenses its traits to other organizations. Ceres headquarters are located in Thousand Oaks, California U.S.A.
Web: www.ceres.net
Donna Heimiller
National Renewable Energy Lab
Donna Heimiller has been a GIS analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory since 1999, applying GIS analysis techniques to solve renewable energy questions for wind, solar, and other renewable energy technologies. She has been involved in GIS-based wind resource assessment modeling, analysis of land-based and offshore wind resource potential, solar resource potential for concentrating solar applications, and utilization of renewable resources in energy modeling activities. She holds a Master's in Forestry (GIS) from Colorado State University and a Bachelor's in Science (Natural Resources) from the University of Michigan.
Richard Herman
Chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Richard Herman is the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the nation’s preeminent public research universities. He is dedicated to excellence in education through scientific and intellectual innovation, diversity, public engagement, and providing students an education with a global perspective.
A mathematician, Dr. Herman has been a leader in shaping national science policy for many years, consistently stressing the need to better position the sciences to engage the emerging needs of society. President Bush appointed Dr. Herman to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, where he joins a select group of members from the academic community and the private sector who advise the president on technology, scientific research priorities, and math and science education. He has also served on the National Science Foundation's Advisory Committee for the Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and served as chair of the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics. He is a member of the Observatories Council, the Management Council of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., associated with the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. Recently, he was appointed vice chair of the Universities Research Association.
Dr. Herman was appointed Chancellor in May 2005. He joined the Illinois campus in 1998 as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, the institution’s chief academic and budget officer. Before coming to Illinois, he served as Dean of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park and Chair of the Department of Mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University. He has been a visiting faculty member and fellow at the University of Marseilles and Princeton University.
Dr. Herman’s research on mathematical physics and operator algebras has been supported by such organizations as the National Science Foundation, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and National Defense Education Act, and has resulted in numerous reports in scientific publications. In 1963, he received a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from the Stevens Institute of Technology. In 1967, he earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Maryland.
Richard Hewings
Department of Geography, IGPA
Geoff Hewings’ major research interests lie in the field of urban and regional economic analysis with a focus on the design, implementation and application of regional economic models. He has devoted considerable time to the way in which these models might become useful in policy formation and evaluation. In addition to the continuing development of regional econometric-input-output models for a number of US states and metropolitan areas, Hewings is working on several modeling projects in Brazil, Colombia, Japan, Korea and Indonesia. Recent work in the Midwest, Brazil and Korea has focused on linking regional macro models with transportation network models to explore impacts of unexpected events (earthquakes), expansion of transportation infrastructure and the impacts of port efficiency. At the metropolitan scale, attention has been directed to the estimation of intra-metropolitan flows of good, people, income and consumption expenditures within the Chicago region to measure the changing degree of interdependence. Theoretical work remains directed to issues of economic structure and structural change interpreted through input-output, social accounting and general equilibrium models. Hewings is responsible for the overall direction of REAL, coordination with funding agencies and clients and supervision of graduate students who work for REAL on the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois.
George Gross
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, IGPA
George Gross is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with an appointment as professor in the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. His major research activities are in power system analysis, economics and control and electric utility regulatory policy. He has a keen interest in the interdisciplinary aspects of these areas.
Prof. Gross has introduced new courses into the curriculum and has organized national annual conferences on regulatory issues. He participated in the establishment and direction of the annual Edison Electric Institute School for Power System Operations and Planning, and has actively participated in industry restructuring forums, including appearances before FERC, NARUC and state regulatory agencies. His professional activities include work as an Expert for the United Nations Industrial Developing Organization Technical Missions. Prof. Gross has numerous publications in international refereed journals and has lectured at many universities around the world. He has also won numerous honors in his field.
Prior to coming to the University of Illinois as the Grainger Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1993, Prof. Gross held several management positions at Pacific Gas & Electric Company in San Francisco for nearly two decades. During 1992-93 he held a one year visiting appointment in the Electrical Systems and Integrated Energy Systems Divisions of the Electric Power Research Institute. Gross received his B.Eng.(Honors) in Electrical Engineering at McGill University in 1969, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 1971 and 1974 respectively.
Elizabeth Israel
Green Microfinance
Elizabeth Israel is the co-founder and President of Green Microfinance, LLC (GMf), whose mission is to improve the environmental performance of microenterprise and microfinance. Green Microfinance supports clean energy for the poor, which is essential to achieving poverty reduction and environmental sustainability, two of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The organization advocates the use of sustainable energy by microenterprises and microfinance institutions, which contributes to global sustainable economic development and reduces the impacts of climate change on the poorest of the poor. They promote the use and distribution of renewable energy technologies, which helps reduce global warming, providing the poor with cleaner air and ultimately better health.
Elizabeth initiated and co-facilitated the Wharton-Green Microfinance Roundtable: Microfinance and the Environment- Setting the Research and Policy Agenda held May 2006. She participate on the workshop panel entitled "How MFIs and their Clients can have a Positive Impact on the Environment” at the Microcredit Summit 2006 in Halifax.
For twenty-six years Elizabeth has worked in community-based economic development. For 7 years, Elizabeth lived in rural communities with her family while serving in the Commonwealth of Dominica and in Nepal under the United Methodist Church. She began her career with Trickle Up ( TUP), forming one of the first TUP groups in 1979. After returning to the United States from Nepal, Elizabeth joined the newly-formed Working Capital team, which received the First Presidential Award in Microenterprise Development for Innovation from President Bill Clinton at the White House in 1997. Prior to forming Green Microfinance, she was Washington Director of Christian Children’s Fund and Director of Eastern University International Economic Development Program.
Atul Jain
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, UIUC
Atul K. Jain is Associate Professor at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before he was a Research Scientist at the Global Climate Research Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and at the University of Münster in Germany. His research interests include global carbon cycle and its relation to global climate change, with special emphasis on ocean general circulations, terrestrial ecosystems, and land cover and land use changes, which he studies through the development of numerical models of physical and biogeochemical processes. Dr. Jain is author of the Integrated Science Assessment Model (ISAM). He served as invited expert to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Expert Meetings and as contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report,
Daniel M. Kammen
University of California, Berkeley
Daniel M. Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering. Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL). Kammen is also the Co-Director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment (http://bie.berkeley.edu).
Kammen received his undergraduate (Cornell A., B. ’84) and graduate (Harvard M. A. ’86, Ph.D. ’88) training in physics. After postdoctoral work at Caltech and Harvard, Kammen was professor and Chair of the Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 1993 – 1998. He then moved to UC Berkeley.
Through RAEL ( http://rael.berkeley.edu) Kammen works with faculty colleagues, postdoctoral fellows, and roughly 20 doctoral students on a wide range of science, engineering, economics and policy projects related to energy science, engineering and the environment. The focus of Kammen’s work is on the science and policy of clean, renewable energy systems, energy efficiency, the role of energy in national energy policy, international climate debates, and the use and impacts of energy sources and technologies on development, particularly in Africa and Latin America. His work is interdisciplinary, and extends from theoretical studies to highly practical field projects and the design and development of specific policy initiatives and pieces of legislation. Kammen has published five books, over 200 journal articles and 30 research reports.
Daniel Kammen serves on the National Advisory Board of the Union of Concerned Scientists, on the Technical Review Board of the Global Environment Facility, and in 1998 was elected a Permanent Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.
Jay P. Kesan
UIUC
Jay P. Kesan is a Professor & Director of the Program in Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and he is appointed in the College of Law and the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. He is the theme leader for the business, economics and law of genomic biology (BioBEL) theme at the Institute of Genomic Biology (IGB). He teaches and writes in the areas of intellectual property, especially patent law, with a special focus on agricultural biotechnology. He is educated and trained in both disciplines – law and technology. He received his J.D. summa cum laude from Georgetown University and he also has a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He worked as a research scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. He is also a registered patent attorney and practiced at the law firm of Pennie & Edmonds LLP. He has published over 40 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and obtained several patents worldwide. He has also published numerous papers on the law and economics of patent law and policy in various technological arenas. His legal academic work has been cited by numerous state Supreme Courts.
A resume and a list of his publications can be found at: http://www.jaykesan.com
Madhu Khanna
Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, UIUC
Madhu Khanna is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focuses on environmental policy analysis and incentives for adoption of environmentally friendly technologies. She has examined the effectiveness of alternative market based instruments for inducing the adoption of best management practices in agriculture such as precision farming and improved irrigation methods and the targeting of green payment policies for reducing nitrogen run off and sediment from cropland. She also examines the design and performance of voluntary programs such as the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program to improve water quality in the Illinois River. She is currently examining the economics of using perennial grasses to provide environmental benefits, such as soil carbon sequestration and reduced run-off, as well as a source of bioenergy. Her research has been funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency, US Department of Energy, and the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research.
Prof. Khanna teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in international trade and environmental economics. She has received several teaching and research awards and was supervisor of the recipient of an Outstanding Thesis Award in 2002 from the American Association of Agricultural Economics. She was selected as a University of Illinois Scholar for 2004-07. She has served on review panels for the USEPA and the USDA. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. She serves as an associate editor for the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and Review of Agricultural Economics.
Juliane Kniebel-Hübner
Microenergy International
Juliane Kniebel is General Director of MicroEnergy International in Canada and a consultant in the areas of market, business and product development in developing countries. She has a Diploma in Electrical Engineering and Economics at the Technical University of Berlin and the Brandenburg Technical Universität Cottbus, Germany. She worked as a Research Associate at the Institute for Energy Engineering (IET), Technical University Berlin, on energy strategies for rural areas in developing countries which was also the topic of her PhD thesis. Areas of Expertise include: energy policy and energy economics; micro financing; Socio-economic effects of micro credits; renewable energies; enterprise development in the energy sector; technical and economic sociology; interdisciplinary and intercultural communication.
Ulrike Lehr
German Aerospace Center, Stuttgart
Ulrike Lehr received a physics degree from the University of Essen, Germany, an Economics degree from VPI&SU, Blacksburg, Virgina and her PhD from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. Her research focused on energy economics with a focus on the environmental impact of energy systems early in her career at the Rhine-Westphalian institute of economics research in Germany, one of the major German economics thinktanks. Her doctoral thesis dealt with the economic valuation of environmetal changes, focussing on the example of the recultivation of former East German lignite mines. Currently, her research at the German Aerospace Center is dealing with the economic and environmental impacts of increasing shares of renewable energy. A special focus of recent work lies on the assessment of employment effects of national and international policies to promote rnewable energy technologies.
Deron Lovaas
Natural Resources Defense Council
Deron Lovaas is vehicles campaign director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. He directs the “Break the Chain” oil security campaign and previously served as the chief lobbyist on the federal Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) reauthorization bill. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Deron has worked in environmental policy and advocacy for more than a decade, including as director of the Sierra Club's “Challenge to Sprawl” campaign and a specialist in transportation and air-quality planning at Maryland's Department of the Environment.
Web: http://www.nrdc.org/
Stephen Long
UIUC
Stephen Long is the Robert Emerson Professor in Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois. His B.Sc. (first class honours) is from the Department of Agricultural and Horticultural Botany at the University of Reading in the UK, and he gained his Ph.D. in Environmental Physiology from the University of Leeds. Previous appointments have included the University of Essex in the UK, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Vienna. His research focuses on the direct effects, and mechanisms of effect, of atmospheric change on vegetation and ecosystems, and on novel low input crops as biomass energy sources. He is lead PI to the SoyFACE project; a unique open-air laboratory investigating the impacts of rising carbon dioxide and tropospheric ozone on crop systems of the Midwest (www.soyface.uiuc.edu), involving over 20 faculty from a range of UIUC departments and institutions across the US and Europe. His most recent results were published in Science magazine last year. He is listed by Science Citation Index as one of the 250 most cited authors in Animal & Plant Biology and one of the 25 most cited in Global Climate Change. He also directs the Illinois Council for Food and Agricultural Research Special Research Initiative on Bioenergy a multidisciplinary research project. He is Chief and Founding Editor of the journal Global Change Biology. He has been a contributing author and referee for the IPCC’s Assessment Reports of the Scientific Basis for Climate Change, and has served on various committees for research on global climate change for the European Union Cooperation in Science and Technology initiatives, the United Nations Environment Program, the UK Natural Environment Research Council, and the US Department of Energy. He gave a congressional briefing on the impacts of atmospheric change on Midwest crops and on opportunities for mitigation in 2005 and in February this year provided a briefing to President Bush at the White House on opportunities for mitigation through renewable fuels from crop systems. He is Acting Deputy Director of the newly announced Berkeley-Illinois Energy Bioscience Institute – which was awarded $500M over 10 years by BP in February to establish the science and development to facilitate replacement of 30% of current gas use by renewable energy. The Institute should open its doors in July.
Lee Makowski
Argonne National Lab
Lee Makowski received his Bachelor's of Science at Brown University in Physics, and Masters and Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering. After doing postdoctoral research at Brandeis University in Structural Biology, he joined faculty of the College of Physician and Surgeons at Columbia University in the Biochemistry Department. He moved to Boston University as Professor of Physics in 1988 and 5 years later accepted a position as Director of the Institute of Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University. In 1998 he joined the National Science Foundation where he was a Program Director first in the Biology Directorate and then in the Division of Materials Science. In the summer of 2000 he became Director of the Bioscience Division at Argonne National Laboratory. The Bioscience Division carries out a broad portfolio of research centered on the structural and functional analysis of macromolecules; structural genomics and high-throughput protein production. He has acted as an advisor to several biotechnology and nanotechnology companies. He is an author of over 90 scientific research papers and numerous review articles on the structure and assembly of macromolecular complexes, bacteriophage structure and assembly, phage display technology and molecular recognition. His current research includes structural biology, nanotechnology, phage display and molecular recognition.
Bruce McCarl
Regents Professor of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University
Dr. McCarl is a Regents Professor of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association. He has been involved with cost benefit modeling of biofuels, greenhouse gas mitigation, climate change along with agricultural, forest, and natural resource policies for over three decades, during which he has been funded by many agencies. Among other activities he recently was
- Lead agricultural sector modeling economic analyst on the US Government appraisal of Proposed Renewable Fuel Standard Rule, .
- Lead author on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group III, Agricultural Mitigation Chapter.
- Principal investigator on two USDOE grants on biomass
- Lead investigator agricultural and forest sector modeling economic analyst on the US Government National Climate Change assessments.
Dr. McCarl is author of over 184 refereed articles, of which over 40 relate to biofuels and climate change. His research projects on biofuels are reflected on http://agecon2.tamu.edu/people/faculty/mccarl-bruce/biomass.html
Jonathan Mielenz
Oak Ridge National Lab
Jonathan R. Mielenz received his PhD from University of Illinois C-U in Microbiology. His research career has emphasized industrial enzymes and renewable materials starting with genetically engineering one of the first GRAS food enzymes, a thermostable α-amylase, for CPC International in their research labs adjacent to their Chicago corn wet mill in Argo. Dr. Mielenz has also worked for one of the world’s largest natural plant oil processors, Henkel KGaA, where his staff, and their German counterparts, developed the first renewable polymer feedstock bioprocess for dicarboxylic acids from natural fats and oils. He served as Biofuels Technology Manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado in the mid-1990s, assisting the DOE Biomass Program. Presently, he is the Program Manager of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Biomass Program; in addition, he is the Leader of the Bioconversion Science and Technology Group in the Biosciences Division at ORNL, where he is actively involved in research for advanced microorganisms for production of biomass ethanol.
Hayri Önal
Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, UIUC
Hayri Önal is professor of operations research in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, and joined the faculty of UIUC in 1989. His research focuses mostly on agricultural economics, natural resources management, and environmental conservation problems at local, national and international level. He has conducted extensive empirical research on biological diversity conservation and developed mathematical modeling methods for designing economically, ecologically and spatially efficient reserve networks. He is also engaged in interdisciplinary research addressing renewable energy production and economically efficient land use in U.S. agriculture.
Pat Quinn
Lt. Governor Illinois
Pat Quinn (Democrat), was re-elected Lieutenant Governor on Nov. 7, 2006. His priorities include advocating for taxpayers and consumers, protecting the environment, promoting decent health care, and helping members of the armed services and their families.
The Lieutenant Governor chairs the Illinois River Coordinating Council, which addresses the economic, environmental and recreational viability of the Illinois River watershed, and the Governor's Rural Affairs Council, which consider issues facing rural Illinois, such as housing, transportation and health care. He oversees the Illinois Main Street program, a statewide program associated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation that helps communities to revitalize their downtowns through economic restructuring, design enhancement, tourism and promotion. He also chairs the Illinois delegation of the bi-national Great Lakes Commission.
In 2003, Governor Rod Blagojevich named Quinn chairman of the Blackout Solutions Task Force to study the state’s power grid and prevent power outages. He also chairs the Mississippi River Coordinating Council, the Illinois Green Government Coordinating Council , the Illinois Biofuels Investment and Infrastructure Working Group , and the Broadband Deployment Council. Quinn led the successful effort to enact the Illinois Military Family Relief Act, which provides financial assistance to families of Illinois National Guard members and Reservists called to active duty.
Quinn served as Illinois State Treasurer from 1991 to 1995, where he cut his office’s budget each year and earned taxpayers $848 million in investment income. Since 1975, Quinn has organized petition drives for consumer protection laws, tax reform and citizen empowerment. He spearheaded the 1983 drive to create the Citizens Utility Board. In 2001, he walked across Illinois, from the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan, on behalf of the Bernardin Amendment, which calls for decent health care for everyone.
Quinn, 58, is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and holds an international economics degree from Georgetown University. He was elected Commissioner of the Cook County Board of (Property) Tax Appeals in 1982 and served as Revenue Director for the City of Chicago. The father of two sons, Quinn grew up in Hinsdale and now lives in Chicago.
Joy Ready
UIUC
Joy A. Ready is the Coordinator of International Projects at the International Programs and Studies Office / University of Illinois. She is receiving her masters’ degree at the U of I in International Urban Planning in May 07. She has done planning work in Nigeria, Africa, Indonesia, Mexico and been involved with the New Orleans recovery. She has been the founder of two international non-profit international organizations, and has worked extensively in Nigeria, Africa for the past 7 years. The focus of her work has been with the underprivileged and impoverished families both in the United States and Africa. Joy has been the CEO and Director of Business to Business NFP, which granted microfinance seed money and loans to Nigerians to improve the economy by encouraging growth in local businesses. She is currently the project manager for a human capacity building project for USAID/UIUC/IALC in Pakistan/Afghanistan, and is also researching alternative energy sources for the African nations for future projects.
Eric Rund
Champaign County Farm Bureau
Eric Rund is a producer of seed corn, food grade corn, and seed beans in southwest Champaign County, Illinois. He has been a member of the Farm Bureau for over 30 years and served on its Board of Directors the past 8 years. Besides traveling extensively, Eric and wife Maria entertain and serve as interpreters for groups of farmers and agribusiness visitors from other countries. They have a small investment in farmland in Brazil. Utilizing his extensive network of contacts, Eric organizes and guides agriculture related tours, mostly to Argentina and Brazil. The two most recent trips were focused on studying the potentially devastating soybean rust fungus, and to observe Brazil’s programs to become energy self sufficient.
Rapid advances in cellulosic technologies will change the present demand for corn to a demand for cellulose. Eric is looking for ways for farmers to position themselves to take advantage of this change. He is lobbying lawmakers to provide the needed incentives and ethanol companies to build the kind of plants that can accommodate a shift to cellulosic feedstock in the future.
For more information visit http://www.agtivities.com/
Jürgen Scheffran
ACDIS, Department of Political Science and Atmospheric Sciences
Jürgen Scheffran is a Senior Research Scientist through a grant of the MacArthur Foundation to ACDIS, a unit of International Programs and Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has adjunct faculty positions at the Departments of Political Science and Atmospheric Sciences, and is affiliated with the Information Trust Institute and the Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research. After his physics PhD at the University of Marburg in Germany he worked as a researcher and assistant professor in the interdisciplinary research group IANUS and the mathematics department at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Following a research project at Hamburg University, he joined the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in 2001, and in 2003 he was Visiting Professor at the University of Paris (Pantheon/Sorbonne). Research and teaching interests include: energy, environment and climate change; complex systems analysis, operations research and computer modeling; technology assessment, conflict analysis and international security. He is leading the project on Renewable Energy and Land-use in Illinois which hosts the international symposium Fueling Change with Renewable Energy (April 26/27, 2007).
Web: www.renewable-energy.uiuc.edu, http://www.acdis.uiuc.edu.
Marlene Sieck
Federal Environmental Agency, Germany
Since July 2005 Marlene Sieck works at the German Federal Environmental Agency, analysing the impact of waste-management on climate change and comparing policy strategies in the Member States of the European Union to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using the potential of the waste sector. Before (1995 – 2005) she was Agenda 21 Officer and Coordinator of Renewable Energy Projects in the District of Luechow-Dannenberg, a region with low population density. Agriculture and forestry are still important sectors but the employment potential is in decline. Renewable Energy is the most important pillar for the economic development in the future (esp. biomass).
Marlene Sieck has studied Veterinary Medicine and has a Master of European Administrative Management.
Seth Snyder
Section Leader for Chemical and Biological Technology in the Energy Systems Division at Argonne National Laboratory
Seth Snyder is the Section Leader for Chemical and Biological Technology in the Energy Systems Division at Argonne National Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Virginia investigating dynamic metal complex interactions in DNA. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Argonne investigating photosynthesis and a postdoctoral fellowship at Abbott Laboratories investigating proteins in Alzheimer's disease. His research has spanned the interface of biology, chemistry, and engineering. His section conducts applied and basic research on integration of processing and separations for the efficient production of platform biofuels and biobased products. The section has additional research programs in membrane technology, water treatment, CO2 capture technologies, solar conversion, and environmental remediation. The research is supported by several DOE offices, USDA, and private funding and includes partnerships with large and small companies. He has affiliation with the Univ. of Illinois - Institute for Genomics Biology and the University of Chicago Institute of Genomics and Systems Biology. He has about 40 technical publications and eight patent applications. He was recognized with a 2006 and 2002 R&D 100 Awards. He serves on the governing board and the chair of research collaboration for the Council for Chemical Research, as the Lab Relationship Manager to DOE Office of Biomass, and on the State of Illinois Biofuels Task Force.
Chris Somerville
Director of the Carnegie Institution Department of Plant Biology and a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University
Chris Somerville is the Director of the Carnegie Institution Department of Plant Biology and a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. He also chairs the executive committee of the new Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley, University of Illinois and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and patents in plant and microbial genetics, genomics, biochemistry, and biotechnology. His current research is focused on the characterization of proteins, such as cellulose synthase, implicated in plant cell wall synthesis and modification. He has served as a member of the scientific advisory boards of numerous academic institutions, corporations, and private foundations in Europe and North America. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, The Royal Society of London and the Royal Society of Canada and has received numerous scientific awards.
William Sullivan
Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, Director of the Environmental Council, University of Illinois
William Sullivan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and is Director of the Environmental Council at the University of Illinois. The Environmental Council stimulates environmental discovery, learning, and public engagement both on campus and in the community. Sullivan holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan with a concentration in Environment and Behavior. He focuses his attention on issues related to environmental sustainability and the role of public institutions in creating a sustainable world.
Michelle Wander
UIUC
Michelle Mary Wander is an associate professor of soil fertility, agroecology in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign where she serves as the faculty director of the Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture Program (ASAP) and co-coordinator of the LandInformatics Collaboratory. Her research considers the ecology and sustainability of agricultural systems and adjacent landscapes with an emphasis on soil organic matter, soil biology and biochemistry. Current research considers the influence of organic and alternative production, including bioenergy crops, on biologically based fertility, soil processes, C sequestration, global warming potential, and climate change. She maintains an active outreach program in concert with ASAP, eOrganic and the Soil Quality/Ecological Soil Management Websites and serves on national and international professional committees addressing organic management, sustainable agriculture, and soil and water conservation. Courses taught include: Soil Ecology/Advanced Soil Ecology, Soil Organic Matter, Soil Nutrient Cycling, Crop Sciences/Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences Professionalism and Ethics, Seminar on the Ecology and Sustainability of Agricultural Systems, Introductory Soils, Intensive summer graduate course at the Land Institute in 2003.
Wang Zhongying
Center for Renewable Energy Development, Beijing, China
Wang Zhongying got his bachelor on basic mathematics from the Mathematic Department of Beijing Normal University in 1984. He worked for Beijing Jiaotong University as mathematic lecture during 1984-1987. In 1989, he had graduated from Tsinghua University and got the master on energy system analysis. Since 1989, he started to work for the Energy Research Institute of NDRC. Before 1995, he had been researched on conventional energy issues for policy, demand and supply analysis including mathematics model. Since 1996, he started to research on renewable energy issues in China, mainly including development strategy, plan, policy and law. For example, he was involved in research on the China Renewable Energy Middle and Long Term Development Plan, Renewable Energy Law, Provincial Development Plan etc. He also was involved in project development and implementation on UNDP, WB/GEF renewable energy projects for NDRC. At present, he is the director of Center for Renewable Energy Development of Energy Research Institute, NDRC.
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, Santa Barbara, CA
Ernst von Weizsäcker joined the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara in January 2006. Previously, he served as the policy director at the United Nations Centre for Science and Technology for Development (1981), director of the Institute for European Environmental Policy (1984), and president of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy (1991). He is a member of the Club of Rome, a global think tank devoted to improving society, and he served on the World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalization. Later he became a member of the Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany, where he was appointed Chairman of the Environmental Committee. He has also served as a professor of interdisciplinary biology and was the founding president of the University of Kassel in Germany (1975).
Von Weizsäcker has authored several influential books on the environment, including “Earth Politics” ( London 1994) ; “Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use” (with Amory & Hunter Lovins, London 1997 ); and “Limits to Privatization” (with Oran Young and Matthias Finger, London, 2005) . His many honors and awards include the prestigious Takeda World Environment Award and the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Medal, presented by World Wildlife Fund International. He is a graduate of Hamburg University and earned his Ph.D. at Freiburg University.
William Worek
Energy Resources Center, U of I Chicago
William M. Worek is Director of the Energy Resources Center at the University of llinois Chicago. He received a MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. His research interests are in the areas of heat and mass transfer processes, thermodynamics, advanced energy systems and solar energy engineering. Current research projects include the simulation and testing of a new class of solid absorbents capable of being directly regenerated with natural gas. A portion of this research program focuses on the design of advanced desiccant-based cooling systems with performance approaching vapor-compression systems and having superior moisture control characteristics. Dr. Worek also is studying the effect of frost formation on the heat and mass transfer characteristics of heat transfer surfaces. A model capable of simulating conditions encountered in actual systems has been constructed and is being used in his work. In the area of alternative energy systems, work is being conducted on the engineering/economic benefits of gas technologies which are compared to existing gas and electric systems and the benefits that result from utilizing the new technologies.
May Wu
Argonne National Lab
May Wu is an Environmental Scientist at Center for Transportation Research at Argonne National Laboratory. Her research interests are in the area of life cycle assessment of energy consumption and associated emissions for renewable transportation fuels. In particular, May conducts analysis for bio-based fuels produced from various feedstocks. May has been working on fuel life cycle pathway development for the GREET (Greenhouse gases Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Transportation) model at Argonne, which includes examination of various feedstock production options and evaluation of new fuel processing technologies to identify key life cycle steps for potential energy reduction. Prior to this appointment May was a senior research microbiologist at Nalco where her research area covers technology development for microbial fouling monitoring and control in industrial water system. May’s postdoctoral work at Argonne National Laboratory ranges from microbial influenced corrosion and membrane separation of biologically derived organic acid process. Dr. Wu holds several US patents and received a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering and Environmental Toxicology from Michigan State University.
James Zhang
Vice President of Business Development, Mendel Biotechnology Inc.
James Zhang (Ph.D.) is Vice President of Business Development at Mendel Biotechnology based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mendel Biotechnology is a 10-year old plant biotechnology company with major businesses for trait technology in row crops to Monsanto and seeds and feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol. The Company is also applying its technology for improvement of ornamentals, plantation forestry species, and the development of a novel class of agricultural chemistries. James started in Mendel in the August of 1997 as one of the founding scientists. James holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California at Davis and completed postdoctoral studies at Stanford University.
Charles Zukoski
Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Charles F. Zukoski is the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. As Vice Chancellor he has focused on enhancing the impact of the scholarship and research of faculty members across the University through thedevleopmetn of multidisciplinary efforts and increasing university-industry ties. Zukoski received his undergraduate degree in Physics form Reed College and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in Chemical Engineering. He is recognized as an expert in suspension mechanics and nanoparticle synthesis. Zukoski is the William H. nad Janet G. Lycan Professor in the School of Chemcial Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.