Brian Blank
Group Leader of Catalytic Materials, Virent
Blank has worked with Virent for 5 years as a physical organic chemist with experience in reaction kinetics, pathways, mechanisms, materials with a background in zeolites and selective hydrogenation. At Virent Blank has focused on catalyst characterization and development. He has filed two applications for catalyst materials and applications of our core APR/HDO technology, both of which should be published by March 2014. Prior to coming to Virent Blank worked with UOP, a fully-owned subsidiary of Honeywell.
Tom Buis
CEO, Growth Energy
Tom Buis joined Growth Energy in March 2009 as the CEO of the organization. Prior to joining Growth Energy, Buis was elected National Farmers Union’s 13th president. Buis had been with the organization since March 1998, previously serving as vice president of government relations. Buis served for nearly five years as senior agriculture policy advisor to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. In addition, Buis worked for U.S. Rep. Jim Jontz, D-Ind., for nearly five years as legislative assistant and legislative director. He was also special assistant for agriculture to U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind. Before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1987, Buis was a full-time grain and livestock farmer in Putnam and Morgan Counties in West Central Indiana, with brothers Mike and Jeff, who continue to operate the family farm.
Timothy Donohue
Director, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center
The principal investigator of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), Donohue is an expert in how microbes harness and convert solar energy. His laboratory researches genetic pathways and networks that microbes use to generate biomass or biofuels from sunlight. His work employs genome sequence, microarrays, proteomics and molecular techniques to determine how the energy in sunlight or renewable nutrients is diverted into cell biomass or biofuel formation.
Sage Kokjohn
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sage Kokjohn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include engine modeling and experiments focused on explaining the mechanisms controlling high-efficiency combustion systems and developing pathways to achieve robust, high-efficiency energy conversion. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University and M.S. and Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Kokjohn was a visiting researcher at the Combustion Research Facility at Sandia National Labs where he used optical engine experiments to investigate low temperature, premixed combustion. His work resulted in the development of a novel, high-efficiency premixed combustion strategy using two-fuels with different auto-ignition characteristics. The combustion strategy developed during Professor Kokjohn’s Ph.D work is currently an active area of research in academia, industry, and government laboratories. Before joining UW-Madison, Professor Kokjohn worked as a senior engineer in combustion research at Cummins Inc. where his research focused on developing a high-efficiency combustion system for heavy-duty truck applications.
Gary Radloff
Director, Midwest Energy Policy Analysis, Wisconsin Energy Institute
Gary Radloff is a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Director of Midwest Energy Policy Analysis for the Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI). He is an Honorary Associate/Fellow with the Nelson Institute, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE). Radloff has also served as the Interim Director with the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative at the University of Wisconsin. He is the lead author or co-author of the reports: How to Keep Wisconsin and the U.S. Competitive in a Changing Energy World (2013); Wisconsin Strategic Bioenergy Feedstock Assessment (2012), The Biogas Opportunity in Wisconsin (2011), and the Guidelines for Sustainable Planting and Harvest of Nonforest Biomass in Wisconsin (2012). Radloff is the former Director of Policy and Strategic Communications at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). Past activities include helping to coordinate policy initiatives such as the Governor’s Consortium on the Biobased Industry and the Working Lands Initiative.
David Rothamer
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UW-Madison
Education: PhD 2008, Stanford University; MS 2002, University of Wisconsin-Madison; BS 2000, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Interests: Influence of fuel properties on combustion, soot formation, internal combustion engines, and laser based diagnostics
Bernie Steele
Director, Alliances & Operations, MBI
Bernie is a senior manager with a background in microbial physiology and over 25 years of experience in biotechnology. He is currently responsible for MBI operations including external partnerships, compliance, quality assurance and laboratory safety and serves as Biosafety Officer of MBI.
Before joining MBI, Bernie held faculty positions at Auburn University, where he was responsible for the Fermentation and Bioprocessing Laboratory, and the University of Tennessee/Oak Ridge National Laboratory. As a Senior Research Scientist at Boeing Defense and Space Group he was involved in the early development of the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems for the International Space Station. Bernie has spent much of his career leading research aimed at the discovery and development of microbial products, such as enzymes and specialty chemicals, as well as strain development and the use of microorganisms for remediation of environmental contaminants. He has conducted research programs throughout the world including the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Peru, Bolivia, Thailand, Nepal and Belarus.
Cynthia Sweet
Senior University Business Liason, University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Corporate Relations
Cynthia is a senior university business liaison for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Corporate Relations (OCR), where she fosters and facilitates corporate relationships with executives and representatives from more than 300 corporate partners of the university. In this role, she extends OCR's services to business and industry, including providing access to talent, facilities and faculty expertise, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, professional development, and global expertise. She has 18 years of economic and business development experience, and is currently pursuing her master's degree in economic development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Kathryn VandenBosch
Dean and Director, University of Wisconsin—Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Kathryn VandenBosch became dean of the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences in March 2012. Until then VandenBosch was a professor of plant biology at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. She had headed the plant biology department there since 2001, with a brief hiatus in 2006 to serve as interim dean of the newly formed College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. She also served as a member and former chair of the executive committees of both the Faculty Senate and the University Senate.
VandenBosch's research has focused on the genetics of plant-microbe interactions and nitrogen fixation in legumes, a family that includes several agriculturally important species. In 2009 VandenBosch was named a fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists.
Prior to her tenure at the University of Minnesota, VandenBosch was a faculty member at Texas A&M University for 12 years. She holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in botany from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and spent time at both UW-Madison and the John Innes Institute in Great Britain as a postdoctoral associate.
Stephanie Whitehorse
Manager of IP Operations, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
Credentials: B.S. Materials Science and Engineering (UW–Madison); Registered Patent Agent; engineering experience in product design consulting, mechanical design and materials selection.
Responsibilities: Manages intellectual property in the fields of biomedical engineering, medical physics, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, micro and nanotechnologies, materials and processing as well as electrical engineering, computer science and software; works with the General Counsel, WARF staff and the university community to revise and implement WARF's intellectual property procedures and policies.
Carol Williams
Research Scientist, UW-Madison, and Director, Midwest Conservation Biomass Alliance
Carol develops and manages projects where research and demonstration are dynamically combined for catalyzing bioeconomy transitions and improving landscape multifunctionality. Her efforts join public and private partners in pursuit of greater sustainability of agriculture and bioenergy, particularly that involving grasslands and their ecological resources. Carol’s work emphasizes pilot initiatives and adaptive approaches to innovation at the commerce-conservation nexus. She is author of articles in scientific and outreach publications, as well as academic textbooks. Carol has a Ph.D. in Geography and Environmental Resources from Southern Illinois University (2002), and was postdoctoral associate in agronomy at Iowa State University.