Canan Sener is a scientist at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI). She received her Ph.D. from Middle East Technical University (METU-Turkey) and was a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. James Dumesic’s group at the University of Wisconsin – Madison from 2013 to 2018. She joined Prof. John Ralph’s group in 2019 as a research scientist. 

Sener focuses on designing catalysts and chemical processes for the upgrading of biomass-derived compounds to value added products. Her goal is to produce sustainable products from renewable resources that can compete economically with the products from non-renewable resources. Her current focus is on designing heterogeneous catalysts for lignin depolymerization and upgrading. Simultaneously, she is utilizing her reaction engineering background to fractionate and valorize all fractions of lignocellulosic biomass. Her aim is to “make every single atom count”.