Speakers by Session

Opening Session - The Big Picture: A New Energy Economy in the Southeast, the U.S., and the World

Mrs. Susanne Shine – Keynote Lecture

Ambassador (Deputy Chief of Mission), The Royal Danish Embassy

Ambassador Susanne Shine is currently the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Royal Danish Embassy in Washington, DC. From 2007 to 2012 she was the Ambassador of Denmark to Australia, New Zealand (since 2008), and Fiji (since 2009). From 2005 to 2007, she served as Head of Department, at the Trade Council in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. Ambassador Shine has also served as Deputy Head of Mission at the Royal Danish Embassy in Dublin (2003-2005), and in Ottawa (1997-2000), and has held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen. Previously Ambassador Shine worked for UNDP in Lesotho (1992-1994). Ambassador Shine holds a Master of International Business degree from Copenhagen Business School, Diploma in American Foreign Policy and Security from American University, Washington, DC, and Bachelor of International Business from the Copenhagen Business School. She has been decorated as Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark 2006).

Dr. Sam Baldwin – Keynote Lecture

Chief Science Officer, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy

Sam Baldwin is a Ph.D physicist and currently serves as the Chief Scientist for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. In previous positions he has served with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), Princeton University, the Sahelian Anti-Drought Committee (CILSS) in West Africa, the U.S. Senate, and elsewhere. He is the author or coauthor of nine books and monographs at OSTP, OTA, DOE, and elsewhere, and more than 30 papers and technical reports on energy technology and policy, physics, and other issues. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007.

Mr. Steven J. Mirshak – Keynote Lecture

Global Business Director, DuPont Cellulosic Ethanol

Steven J. Mirshak graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982. He joined DuPont in Martinsburg, West Virginia as a research engineer in the Explosives business. After a variety of manufacturing and research assignments in West Virginia and Illinois he joined DuPont’s Finishes business in 1987. He held research and marketing management assignments in industrial and automotive OEM finishes in Houston and Detroit. After a year as a business consultant for DuPont’s OEM finishes business in Bonn, Germany he joined DuPont’s Packaging and Industrial Polymers SBU in the Glass Laminating Solutions Business where he was Asia-Pacific Regional Business Director, based in Seoul, Korea, and Global Sales Director, based in Wilmington, Delaware. In 2006 he was appointed President of DuPont Tate and Lyle Bio Products, a joint venture between DuPont and Tate and Lyle, based in Loudon, Tennessee. DuPont Tate and Lyle utilizes proprietary fermentation technology to convert corn sugar to 1,3 propanediol. Steve was appointed Global Business Director for DuPont’s cellulosic ethanol business in 2011. His team is focused on constructing DuPont’s first commercial plant in Nevada, Iowa and expansion through joint ventures and technology licensing.

Session Two – Renewable Energy Technologies: A Spectrum of Opportunities

Dr. Steve Krahn

Professor of the Practice, Vanderbilt University

Dr. Krahn performs research in the nuclear fuel cycle, risk assessment and systems engineering. His research projects include work with: the Electric Power Research Institute involving radiological risk assessment of nuclear fuel cycles; the Tennessee Valley Authority evaluating safety/environmental aspects of using mixed-oxide nuclear fuel; and the Department of Energy evaluating priorities for fuel cycle R&D. Prior to joining the Vanderbilt University faculty, Dr. Krahn was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety & Security in the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management — the largest nuclear program in the U.S. For his service, he received the DOE Career Meritorious Service Award. Dr. Krahn holds a Doctorate in Public Administration (University of Southern California), M.S. in Materials Science (University of Virginia) and a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering (University of Wisconsin).

Dr. Joseph R. Gladden

Director of the National Center for Physical Acoustics, University of Mississippi

Dr. Joseph Gladden is group leader of the Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy lab at the National Center for Physical Acoustics and an Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Mississippi. In January of 2013, Dr. Gladden was appointed Director of the NCPA. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Pennsylvania State University (2003). His current research interests include high temperature and pressure precision elastic constant measurements. His group has developed these methods to study metallic hydrides near critical points and phase transitions in novel materials such as Zintl phase and nanostructured thermoelectrics. Additionally, Dr. Gladden has published research on acoustics and self assembly dynamics in complex wormlike micellar fluids. Recently he has begun to focus on vibrational and acoustic energy harvesting methods.

Dr. D. Keith Roper

Program Director, National Science Foundation/University of Arkansas

Professor Roper serves as Program Director, NSF Engineering Education and Centers Division, Assistant Director of the Microelectronics/Photonics Graduate Program, and holds the Charles W. Oxford Chair of Emerging Technologies at the University of Arkansas. His research integrates electromagnetics and transport in nano/bio-metamaterials for applications in environment, sustainable energy, national security, and health. It has resulted in more than 37 peer-reviewed articles and 125 presentations. There are three U.S. patents, one European patent, five Applications, one anti-cancer clinical candidate, and one viral and three bacterial vaccine products. His research is supported by NSF, NIH, EPA, DAAD, and university and state sources. He co-authored Separation Process Principle0073 3rd Ed. He belongs to the Arkansas Nanoscale Material Science and Engineering Institute. Dr. Roper holds memberships in ACS, AIChE, AVS, and Tau Beta Pi.

Dr. David A. Dixon

Robert Ramsey Chair, University of Alabama

Dr. David A. Dixon received a B.S. (chemistry, 1971) from Caltech and a Ph.D. from Harvard University (chemistry, 1976). He is the Robert Ramsay Chair, the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alabama. His main research interests are in the development and applications of computational chemistry. He was Associate Director for Theory, Modeling, & Simulation in the EMSL at PNNL and a Battelle Fellow for more than eight years. He spent more than 12 years in DuPont’s Central Research. He has received many awards including: Harvard Junior Fellowship, 1989 ACS Leo Hendrik Baekeland Award, 2003 ACS Award for Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry, 2010 DOE Hydrogen Program R&D Award, and 2012 SEC Faculty Achievement Award. He is a Fellow of AAAS, APS, and the European Academy of Sciences.

Session Three – Education and Outreach

Dr. Joy Doran Peterson

Director of Biomanufacturing and Bioprocessing Program, University of Georgia

Dr. Joy Doran-Peterson is the Founding Director of UGA’s Professional Science Master’s Program in Biomanufacturing and Bioprocessing where students are trained in microbiology, biochemistry, biochemical engineering, genetics, process development, and are given a solid base in business aspects of the industry. She is also an elected officer of the American Society for Microbiology as Divisional Group III Leader and is an active member of the Society for Industrial Microbiology. Her research interests include biotechnology for biofuels and bioproducts development including metabolic pathway engineering and directed evolution for improved biocatalysts. Her work is also inspired by nature’s methods for deconstructing plant biomass in insect systems, whether it be via the animals contributions of those of its microbial consortium.

Dr. Martha Reifsnider

Energy Frontier Research Center, University of South Carolina

Dr. Martha Reifsnider has served as Education and Outreach Director for the Energy Frontier Research Center on Heterogeneous Functional Materials, the HeteroFoaM Center, at the University of South Carolina. That program involves seven universities and two national labs, and is one of the largest extramural research grants at that university. Dr. Reifsnider has also had responsibility for women and minority programs in the College of Engineering at USC. Prior to that she was Assistant Dean for the Graduate School at Virginia Tech where she spent most of her professional career.

Dr. H.E. “Hank” Stelzer

Forestry Department Chair, University of Missouri

A native of St. Louis, Dr. Stelzer holds a B.S. degree in forest management (University of Missouri, 1976), and graduate degrees in forest genetics (M.S., University of Missouri, 1978; Ph.D., Purdue University, 1986). He is currently the Forestry Department Chair at the University of Missouri and directs the MU School of Natural Resources Extension program. Dr. Stelzer’s extension responsibilities include assisting private landowners in all aspects of woodland management and his research efforts center on woody biomass harvesting systems and short-rotation woody crops for biofuel. Dr. Stelzer recently assisted campus facilities in developing sustainability standards for the university’s biomass fuel contract that will supply the new biomass boiler.

Dr. Conner Bailey

Professor of Rural Sociology, Auburn University

Conner Bailey joined the faculty at Auburn University in 1985. His work centers on the sociology of natural resources, with a strong interest in the impact of technology on both resources and the people who depend on those resources. Conner has been working on a variety of topics related to forestry in the southeastern United States for the past 20 years, and it is from this work that his interest in cellulosic biofuels emerged. His work on the pulp and paper industry has given him an appreciation of industrial processes, logistics, and industry-community relationships that may carry over to a wood-based energy development. Conner received his Ph.D. in Development Sociology from Cornell University and is the Immediate Past President of the Rural Sociological Society.

Session Four – Biomass Feedstocks I (Grassy and Herbaceous Crops)

Dr. Lynn Sollenberger

Professor, University of Florida

Lynn E. Sollenberger is Professor of Grassland Science in the Agronomy Department of the University of Florida. Dr. Sollenberger’s research and teaching programs are in the areas of grassland ecology, management, and utilization. He has mentored 46 graduate students and his research team has authored more than 450 publications, including 160 refereed journal articles and 18 book chapters. He has served as an editor of four journals and on the Board of Directors of the Crop Science Society of America and American Society of Agronomy. Dr. Sollenberger is a University of Florida Research Foundation Professor and is a Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America, the American Society of Agronomy, and the University of Florida Academy of Teaching Excellence.

Dr. Brian Baldwin

Professor, Mississippi State University

Dr. Baldwin is a professor of Plant and Soil Sciences at Mississippi State University. He has earned a B.A. (Bates College; 1980), M.S. (New Mexico State University; 1983) and Ph.D. (New Mexico State University; 1989). Since arriving in Starkville he has worked with alternative crops, including fiber crops like kenaf, roselle and Sunn hemp. Dr. Baldwin has conducted joint research with NRCS-Plant Materials Center at Coffeeville, MS, on domesticating native grass species for potential use as biomass, conservation and prairie restoration projects. Those projects evolved into bioenergy crops, including ligno-cellulosic (switchgrass and giant miscanthus), oilseeds (canola, mustards, castor and sunflower), and sucrose-laden crops (energycane and sweet sorghum).

Dr. Wei-Yin Chen

Professor, University of Mississippi

Wei-Yin Chen is a professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Mississippi. He has been conducting research in the areas of fuel conversion and emission control during power generation. His recent interests include the reactions of CO2 with various types of carbons that lead to CO2 capture and utilization technologies. His research has been supported mainly by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. He has reviewed proposals for agencies of several countries, and manuscripts and books for more than 50 journals and publishers. His editorial works include a recently published Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation. He has received teaching, research and service awards from the School of Engineering of the University.

Dr. Steven Taylor

Head, Department of Biosystems Engineering, Auburn University

Dr. Steven Ellis Taylor is a Professor and Head of Auburn University’s Department of Biosystems Engineering and Director of Auburn’s Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts. He has been at Auburn since 1989 and was appointed department head in 2003. He was appointed center director in 2007. Steve received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from Texas A&M University and he received both his B.S. and his M.S. in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Florida. Dr. Taylor’s teaching, research, and outreach activities have focused on forest engineering and value-added product development using wood. As the department head, he coordinates ongoing education, research, and extension programs in biological engineering and the application areas of agriculture, forestry, and natural resources. As center director, he helps bring together faculty from across the university with interests in bioenergy and bioproducts research and outreach. Dr. Taylor is a registered Professional Engineer.

Session Five – Biomass Feedstocks II (Woody Materials)

Dr. Shibu Jose

Professor, University of Missouri

Shibu Jose is the H. E. Garrett Endowed Chair Professor and Director of the Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Current research efforts focus on biomass and biofuel production systems and their ecological sustainability. He leads a regional consortium focused on commercializing integrated biomass and biofuels production systems. He has received $37 million in funding to support his program during the past 16 years. He has published seven edited books and more than 150 research articles. He serves as Editor-In-Chief of Agroforestry Systems and Editorial Board Member of several other journals. His awards and honors include the Fulbright Fellowship, Aga Khan Fellowship (Switzerland), Stephen Spurr Award and the Young Leadership Award by the Society of American Foresters, among others.

Dr. C.J. Tsai

Professor, University of Georgia

C.J. Tsai is the W.N. Haynes Professor in Forest Biotechnology and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, and the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia. Prior coming to UGA, she was a faculty member at Michigan Technological University from 1997 to 2008, and was Director of the interdisciplinary Biotechnology Research Center there from 2003 to 2007. Her research aims to understand complex traits that are important for biomass productivity and stress response of trees using molecular and genomics approaches. Particular areas of interest include wood formation, drought and nitrogen stress responses, growth and secondary metabolism.

Dr. Gary F. Peter

Professor, University of Florida

A professor at the University of Florida, Dr. Peter uses a wide range of approaches to elucidate the genetic and molecular mechanisms that control stem growth, wood properties and to understand the ecological adaptations and the evolution of xylem structure and function in forest trees. In addition to this fundamental research, he leads a commercial breeding program for southern pines with the Cooperative Forest Genetics Research Program. He is co-director of the Forest Biology Research Consortium whose objectives are to understand the mechanisms that control planted pine forest ecosystem productivity, health and sustainability. He earned an A.B. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Timothy G. Rials

Professor, University of Tennessee

Tim Rials is Professor (Dept. of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries) and Director of the Center for Renewable Carbon at the University of Tennessee. He joined the university after 13 years with the U.S. Forest Service, Southern Research Station in Pineville, Louisiana, following two years on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley. As director of the Center for Renewable Carbon, he facilitates UTIA’s research and development program on the use of forest and agricultural biomass for alternative liquid fuels, industrial chemicals, and advanced materials. Dr. Rials also directs the Southeastern Regional Sun Grant Center that manages a research portfolio in advanced biofuels and bioproducts. Tim recently led a regional team of research and outreach specialists in forming the Southeastern Partnership for Integrated Biomass Supply Systems with a competitively awarded grant from USDA. He is a fellow in the International Academy of Wood Science, and an active member of the American Chemical Society’s Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division.

Session Six – The Integrated Biorefinery I

Dr. Ajay K. Agrawal

Robert F. Barfield Endowed Chair and Professor, University of Alabama

Dr. Ajay K. Agrawal is Robert F. Barfield Endowed Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama. After receiving his Ph.D. from University of Miami in 1988, Prof. Agrawal worked at Michigan Tech University, Clemson University, and University of Oklahoma before coming to Alabama in 2005. His research focuses on low-emission combustion systems for power generation and propulsion, biofuels and alternative fuels, control of combustion noise and thermo-acoustic instability, and meso-scale combustion. Prof. Agrawal has pioneered Rainbow Schlieren Deflectometry, an optical diagnostics technique for scalar measurements in reacting and non-reacting flows. His research has been supported by the DOE, Navy, NASA, Army, Air Force, NSF, and the U.S. Department of Education, among others. He holds two patents and has authored more than 200 referred and conference publications. Professor Agrawal is Chair-Elect of U.S. Central States Section of the Combustion Institute, Fellow of ASME, and Associate Fellow of AIAA.

Dr. James J. Spivey

Professor, Louisiana State University

Dr. Spivey is the Shivers Professor of Chemical Engineering at Louisiana State University. He is Editor-in-Chief of Catalysis Today, and Editor of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Catalysis book series. He has written or edited 17 books, and has authored more than 150 publications. His research focuses on the development and characterization of heterogeneous catalysts for applications such as environmental catalysis and synthesis of chemical intermediates from simple carbon feedstocks like methane. He has managed more than $30 million in sponsored projects over the past 20 years. He currently is Director of the Center for Atomic-level Catalyst Design at LSU, one of 46 new multi-million-dollar DOE Energy Frontier Research Centers. He leads a team of 21 investigators from 10 leading research universities with demonstrated expertise in computational catalysis, advanced materials preparation methods, surface spectroscopy, and experimental testing.

Dr. Philip H. Steele

Professor, Mississippi State University

Dr. Philip Steele has been a Professor in the Department of Forest Products, College of Forest Resources, Mississippi State University for 25 years with both research and teaching duties. He is currently the Thrust Leader of the Sustainable Energy Research Center Bio-oil Research Group. In this role he coordinates the research activities of MSU faculty researchers focused on developing fuels and chemical products from bio-oil produced from forestry and agricultural products. His research area is the production of bioenergy from pyrolysis of forestry and agricultural biomass. Dr. Steele has won several research awards including the College of Forest Resources Outstanding Research Award and awards for exceptional research papers from both the Hardwood Research Council and the Forest Products Society. Dr. Steele has four U.S. patents and three U.S. patents which are pending. Three of those patents have been licensed. He has published widely and is the author or co-author of more than 100 research papers.

Dr. Mark Crocker

Associate Director, Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky

Mark Crocker began his career at Shell Research in Amsterdam, where he spent 12 years as a senior research chemist, before joining the automotive catalyst division of Degussa as R&D Manager for North America. In 2003 he moved to the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, where he is an Associate Director. At the Center he leads a research group focusing on biofuels and environmental catalysis. Mark received B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from the University of Bristol in the U.K., and spent two years as a NATO postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Session Seven – The Integrated Biorefinery II

Dr. Mark Holtzapple

Professor, Texas A&M University

Mark Holtzapple earned his chemical engineering degrees from Cornell University (B.S., 1978) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D., 1981). From 1981 to 1985, he served as an officer in the U.S. Army and developed a miniature air conditioning system to cool soldiers encapsulated in chemical protective clothing. In 1986, he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University where he has received numerous awards for both teaching and research, including the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award given by the President of the United States (1996) and the Walston Chubb Award for Innovation given by Sigma Xi (2006). His research interests include fuels and chemicals from biomass, food and feed processing, water desalination, high-efficiency engines and air conditioners, high-power electric motors, and vertical-lift aircraft.

Dr. Lonnie Ingram

Professor, University of Florida

Lonnie Ingram is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida, with more than 30 years of research experience in the conversion of lignocellulose to ethanol and value added chemicals. Educated as a biologist (B.S) at the University of South Carolina (1969) and a botanist (Ph.D.) at the University of Texas (1971), his research has resulted in more than 200 scientific publications and more than 30 pending and issued U.S. patents. One patent was selected by the Department of Commerce to become Landmark Patent 5,000,000 and describes the first successful genetic engineering of a microorganism to efficiently convert all hexose and pentose sugar constituents of biomass into ethanol. Dr. Ingram has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Microbiology, the US National Academy of Sciences, and as a fellow of the Society of Industrial Microbiology.

Dr. Rafael Hernandez

Associate Professor, Mississippi State University

Rafael Hernandez has a B.S. (1993) and M.S. (1995) in chemical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, and a Ph.D. (2002) in chemical engineering from Mississippi State University (MSU). He worked for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center (1994-1997) on the development, design, and implementation of groundwater treatment technologies. He was awarded the Texas Olefins Professorship in January 2010 and named the Associate Director of the Sustainable Energy Research Center. His research activities are focused on the transformation of wastewater treatment facilities into centers of Biocrude for producing biodiesel and renewable diesel. Over the last three years he has managed more than $12 million in research funding related to biofuels, prepared numerous technical presentations and peer reviewed publications.

Dr. Mario Eden

Department Chair and McMillan Professor, Auburn University

Mario Eden is the Department Chair and Joe T. & Billie Carole McMillan Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Auburn University. Dr. Eden’s research interests include process design, integration and optimization, as well as molecular synthesis and product design. He is the co-author of almost 80 refereed papers/book chapters, 30 invited lectures/seminars, and more than 200 presentations at national/international conferences. To support his research and educational efforts, he has successfully secured nearly $18 million in extramural funding as PI or significant co-PI. Dr. Eden is the recipient of several awards including the NSF CAREER award, the Auburn Engineering Senior Research Award, the William F. Walker Superior Teaching Award, and the Fred H. Pumphrey Teaching Award for Excellence (twice), among others.

Session Eight – Panel: Government, University, & Industry Partnerships in Renewable Energy Policy & Practice

Mr. Kenneth Chacey

Program Manager, Ameresco, Savannah River Site

Kenneth A. Chacey joined Ameresco in July of 2009, and he is the Ameresco Program Manager at the Savannah River Site. He was responsible for the construction of the Biomass Cogeneration Facility, the largest federal biomass facility in the country. He was the Assistant Deputy Administrator for the Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, in the National Nuclear Security Administration. Mr. Chacey also managed the Elimination of Weapons Grade Plutonium Production program where he was responsible for closing the last three plutonium production reactors in Russia. Mr. Chacey holds a B.S. from the Virginia Military Institute and a M.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He retired as a Captain in the Naval Reserve and was called to active duty during Operation Desert Storm, serving as the Commanding Officer of a Naval Mobile Construction Battalion.

Dr. Paul Gilna

Director, BioEnergy Science Center, Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Dr. Paul Gilna is the director of the DOE BioEnergy Science Center (BESC), at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), a 10-year research project focused on understanding and overcoming the difficulty in cost effectively converting cellulosic feedstocks into biofuels. His career has been spent at the intersection of computation and biology. With a Ph.D. In Pharmacology, his early research focused on the molecular biology of human steroid hormone receptors. Gilna then shifted his work to computation biology, taking a position at GenBank at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Gilna has served as a Program Director at the NSF, as a Director of the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) operations at LANL, and most recently as the Executive Director of the CAMERA project at UCSD.

Dr. David Hess

Professor, Vanderbilt University

David J. Hess is a professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University, associate director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment, director of Environmental and Sustainability Studies, and director of undergraduate studies for sociology. He is the recipient of various prizes and PI on various federal grants. His research focuses on the social studies and policy studies of science, technology, health, and the environment, with an emphasis on the role of civil society, social movements, and public engagement in policy. His most recent publication is Good Green Jobs in a Global Economy: Making and Keeping New Industries in the United States (MIT Press, 2012).

Dr. Laurel Harmon

Vice President, Government Relations, LanzaTech

Dr. Laurel Harmon joined LanzaTech from Striatus Inc, where she consulted on proposal and project development in advanced technologies, including energy and renewable fuels. After receiving her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Michigan, Dr. Harmon joined ERIM, a non-profit research organization, to conduct applied research and development for a variety of defense and other government customers. Later she was a technical co-founder of Nonlinear Dynamics, a company specializing in applied pattern recognition. Dr. Harmon provides policy direction and leadership on international legislative and regulatory matters and works to develop collaborative research and demonstration projects for LanzaTech.

Dr. Martin Keller

Associate Laboratory Director of Energy and Environmental Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Martin Keller is the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environmental Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is responsible for the energy, biological, and environmental research programs at ORNL supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). From July 2007 until February 2010, Martin also served as the Founding Director of the DOE BioEnergy Science Center. The mission of the BioEnergy Science Center is to make revolutionary advances in understanding and overcoming the recalcitrance of biomass to conversion into sugars, making it feasible to displace imported petroleum with ethanol and other fuels. He joined ORNL in July 2006. Between 1996 and 2006 Martin held a series of research management positions within Diversa Corporation.

Session Nine – Better Use of Energy in the Built Environment: The Smart Grid and Efficiency

Dr. Alan Mantooth

Distinguished Professor, University of Arkansas

H. Alan Mantooth is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and holder of the 21st Century Endowed Chair in Mixed-Signal IC Design and CAD at the University of Arkansas. He received his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in 1990. He serves as the executive director for three power electronic/power system centers: 1. National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission 2. NSF Center for GRid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems (GRAPES) 3. NSF Vertically-Integrated Center for Transformative Energy Research (VICTER). Professor Mantooth’s career has consisted of a combination of industry and academic experience. He has published more than 200 referenced articles in the area of electronic design and modeling. And Dr. Mantooth is a Fellow of the IEEE, serves as an “IEEE Expert” on Smart Grid, and is a registered professional engineer in Arkansas.

Dr. Pramod P. Khargonekar

Professor, University of Florida

Pramod P. Khargonekar has held faculty positions at the Universities of Florida, Minnesota, and Michigan. He was Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and also held the position of Claude E. Shannon Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Michigan. From 2001 to 2009, he was Dean of the College of Engineering and is currently Eckis Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida. He is Deputy Director for Technology at ARPA-E, U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Khargonekar’s current research and teaching interests include systems and control theory, machine learning, and applications to smart electric grid and neural engineering. He has received numerous awards including the Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher.

Dr. Roger Dougal

Professor, University of South Carolina

Professor Dougal is Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, and leads the Power and Energy Systems research group at the University of South Carolina. He is a Director of the Electric Ship R&D Consortium, which is developing electric power technologies for the next generation of electric ships, and he is co-director of the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Grid connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems. He also leads development of the Virtual Test Bed – a computational environment for simulation-based-design and virtual prototyping of dynamic, multidisciplinary systems. His research interests include power electronics, hybrid power sources and systems, and design and simulation methods for complex multidisciplinary systems.

Dr. David E. Claridge

Leland Jordan Professor, Texas A&M University

Dr. Claridge is the Director of the Energy Systems Laboratory and the Leland Jordan Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He is internationally known for his work on energy efficiency, particularly for pioneering development of existing building commissioning by leading the development of Continuous Commissioning® to improve energy efficiency in hundreds of large buildings including universities, hospitals, offices, and airports with a typical payback of two years. He holds six patents, is author of more than 350 journal and conference papers, is a Fellow ASME and of ASHRAE, and is an Honorary International Member of the Society of Heating, Air-conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan. He received his B.S. from Walla Walla College and M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University

Session Ten – Energy Advances in the Transportation Sector

Dr. Ben Choe

Professor, Auburn University

Song-Yul (Ben) Choe earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany, and he is currently a Professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Auburn University. Before coming to Auburn, he was a director for the HEV and EV program and development of advanced electronics in the Hyundai Kia Motor Company. His current research focuses on dynamic modeling, analysis and controls of power systems and components that include fuel cells, batteries and high current connectors for grid and vehicle applications.

Dr. G. Marshall Molen

Distinguished Professor, Mississippi State University

G. Marshall Molen graduated from Texas Tech University with the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in electrical engineering. He has been employed in industry at The Aerospace Corporation and ESCO Manufacturing Company. His academic career includes serving as associate dean for research and graduate studies at Old Dominion University, chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tennessee Technological University, and ten years as department head at Mississippi State University. As the Ergon Distinguished Professor at MSU, he is involved with unique power applications employing power electronics and automotive technology and is affiliated with the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems. He has served as the faculty advisor for three DOE Advanced Vehicle Competitions, including the current EcoCAR2, where the team has received national recognition as the first-place winner in four of the eight competitions.

Dr. Dorin Boldor

Associate Professor, Louisiana State University

Dorin Boldor is an Associate Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Louisiana State University and the LSU AgCenter. He received a double-major Ph.D. from NC State University in 2003. His expertise includes bio-energy management, electromagnetic processing methods for biofuel production and other agro-environmental applications, imaging and process control methods in bioengineering and bio-energy. In the past eight years, he received more than $1.25 million in research grants, and published more than 35 peer-reviewed journal articles and four book chapters. He served as the Technical Chair for the 2012 International Microwave Power Institute Annual Symposium, and currently serves as the Chair of S-1041 Multistate Regional Project “The Science and Engineering for a Biobased Industry and Economy.” He received several awards and recognitions for his work as a research, teaching, and service scholar.

Session Eleven – Advanced Materials for Energy Applications

Dr. John Anthony

Professor, University of Kentucky

John Anthony received his B.A. in chemistry from Reed College and performed doctoral research with Professor François Diederich at UCLA and at the ETH in Zürich. He returned to UCLA for postdoctoral studies with Professor Yves Rubin. Since 1996 he has been in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky, where his research has been directed toward the synthesis of new organic semiconductors. He has been awarded the Dreyfus New Faculty Award, an NSF CAREER award, and has been named University Research Professor and John C. Hubbard Professor of Chemistry. He is the founder of Outrider Technologies, and was recently awarded the 2012 UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement and the Kirwan Prize for outstanding research. 

Dr. Robin D. Rogers

Robert Ramsey Chair, University of Alabama

Dr. Robin D. Rogers obtained both his B.S. in Chemistry (1978) and his Ph.D. in Chemistry (1982) at the University of Alabama and currently serves as Distinguished Research Professor, Robert Ramsay Chair of Chemistry, and Director of the Center for Green Manufacturing at UA. His research interests cover the use of ionic liquids and Green Chemistry for sustainable technology through innovation and include Materials, Separations, Energy, and Medicine. Rogers is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the American Chemical Society journal Crystal Growth & Design and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals. He has been named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Ken Reifsnider

Professor, University of South Carolina

Ken Reifsnider is Director of the South Carolina SmartState Center for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells at the University of South Carolina. He is also Director of the DOE Office of Science Frontier Research Center for Heterogeneous Functional Materials, the “HeteroFoaM Center,” which includes investigators from seven universities and two national laboratories. Reifsnider is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and was elected for his work in the analysis and design of heterogeneous (composite) materials used in jet engines, aerospace structures, medical prosthetics, fuel cells, and high performance capacitors. He has published more than 200 archival papers, and has held positions at the University of Connecticut (Director of Global Fuel Cell Center) and Virginia Tech (Reynolds Metals Professor and Head of the Materials Science and Engineering Ph.D. program).

Dr. Tom Zawodzinski

Governor’s Chair Professor, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Thomas Zawodzinski is the Governor’s Chair in Electrical Energy Conversion and Storage, with appointments in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Departments at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At Case Western Reserve University, he was the Ohio Eminent Scholar in Fuel Cells and the Founding Director of the Wright Fuel Cell Group. He directed an ARO MURI integrating experimental and computational methods for catalyst discovery. Prior to Case, he served as Team Leader for Fuel Cells in MST-11 at LANL. Dr. Zawodzinski led the LANL team optimizing reformate/air fuel cells, for which he received the DOE Fuel Cell Award in 1999. In addition to his fuel cell work, while at LANL, Dr. Zawodzinski initiated and led programs addressing batteries, biosensors and other electrochemical devices. He received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the SUNY Buffalo, under the supervision of Robert Osteryoung, focused on Room Temperature Ionic Liquids.

Closing Session – Invited Talks from Submitted Abstracts

All registrants are invited to submit abstracts for inclusion in the poster exhibition and/or for consideration in delivering an invited talk during the closing session on Tuesday afternoon. Presenting authors will be required to select one of seven topic tracks: Renewable Energy Policy; Economic Development; Lifecycle Assessment/Economic Analysis; Biomass Feedstock Development/Characterization; Biomass Conversion Technologies; Energy Conservation and Efficiency; or Integrated Biorefinery.

Dr. Chandra Theegala, Associate Professor

Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Louisiana State University

Dr. Sivakumar Pattathil, Assistant Research Scientist

BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia

Dr. Robert S. Balog, Assistant Professor

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University