Scientific Advisory Board

Great Lakes Bioenergy’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) consists of industry and academic representatives with expertise spanning all three of the center’s research areas. The SAB provides critical insight and strategies that help guide the direction of Great Lakes Bioenergy’s research.

Steve Csonka

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Steve Csonka is executive director of the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), a coalition of airlines, manufacturers, energy producers, researchers, and government agencies working to develop and deploy sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) for commercial aviation. With more than 35 years of experience with commercial aircraft engines and fuels, he holds a master’s degree in propulsion and combustion engineering from the University of Cincinnati. Prior to joining CAAFI in 2012, Csonka worked in operations engineering and fleet management for American Airlines and later directed environmental strategy for GE Aerospace.

Jesse Dill

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Jesse Dill is senior director of business development at Ginkgo Bioworks. He has over a decade experience in industrial R&D in startups and public companies, as well as in public and private sector R&D funding. After graduate school, he first worked on high-throughput screening at Bolt Threads and food science for new product development at Beyond Meat. He then spent several years as a SETA at DARPA BTO, then in venture capital at Northpond Ventures, before coming to his current role at Ginkgo.

Steve Hartig

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Steve Hartig is a consultant with nearly 40 years of experience in growing and transforming international specialty businesses through innovation, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and organic growth. Hartig previously served as vice president of technology development at ICM Biofuels, a leader in the development of technology for biofuels. He has been a member of the GLBRC scientific advisory board since 2015 and serves on the strategic advisory board of Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Abby Kurth

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Abby Kurth serves as the technical application manager for the AGRI Americas team at Borregaard, a world-leading biorefinery that supplies bio-based, sustainable, high-performance ingredients and co-formulants. In this role and as part of Borregaard’s global innovation team, Abby manages research and product development of wood- and humate-based agricultural inputs, especially focusing on biostimulant and soil amending properties. Abby received a bachelor’s in chemistry from Concordia College, Moorhead and received her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

Debra Mohnen

Debra Mohnen

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Debra Mohnen is a distinguished research professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Georgia Athletic Association Professor of the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center at the University of Georgia. Mohnen was the focus area lead for Biomass Formation and Modification in the Bioenergy Science Center from 2011 to 2017 and has been the research domain lead for Integrative Analysis and Understanding in the Center for Bioenergy Innovation since 2017. She holds a Ph.D. in plant biology from the University of Illinois.

Joanne Morello

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Joanne Morello has more than 13 years of experience working on decarbonization of the heavy-duty transportation sector through management of renewable fuels research and commercialization programs. Joanne is a sustainable fuels analyst with GE Aerospace Research. Prior to joining GE she worked for Northrop Grumman, where she served as the lead technical advisor to the US Air Force on SAF and helped manage a large public-private commercialization project. She previously served as a technology manager with the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office and holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Ben Oyserman

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Ben Oyserman serves as the AgroEcosystem Technical Manager for Syngenta, a leading agtech company that supports millions of farmers worldwide in cultivating safe, nutritious food, while prioritizing environmental stewardship. In his role at Syngenta, Oyserman leads global product development initiatives related to plant, soil and agroecosystem health. Prior to joining Syngenta, Oyserman was a postdoctoral researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology and Wageningen University Research. He holds a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Zengyi Shao

Zengyi Shao

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Zengyi Shao is the Hershel B. Whitney Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Iowa State University and affiliated with the NSF Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) and the DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI).

Blake Simmons

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Blake Simmons serves as the Chief Scientific and Technology Officer and vice president of the Deconstruction Division at the US Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) in Emeryville. Simmons worked as part of the senior management team at Sandia National Laboratories for 15 years, most recently serving as the senior manager of advanced biomanufacturing as well as the biomass program manager. Simmons teaches at the University California-Berkeley and the University of Queensland in Australia. He holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Tulane University.

Sneha Srikrishnan

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Sneha Srikrishnan is the segment director for fermentation biosolutions at Archer Daniels Midland Company. Prior to ADM, Sneha worked as senior director at Ginkgo Bioworks to develop platform technology for enzyme and protein production services. She previously worked on production of isobutanol from yeasts at Gevo. She has over a decade of industrial experience in successfully delivering synthetic biology-based solutions within the nutrition, sustainable fuels, waste valorization and environmental remediation areas. Sneha graduated with a bachelors in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and earned her Ph.D. in chemical and biochemical engineering from the University of California, Irvine.

Paris Tsobanakis

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Paris Tsobanakis is the former Director of Transformational Innovation at Cargill. He worked for Cargill from 1993 to 2024 in R&D management roles and contributed to the development of a number of fermentation products in the Food and Bio-industrials space. From 2011 to 2020, Tsobanakis led Cargill’s efforts in Disruptive Technologies and Supply Chains, helping Cargill businesses make investments in key technologies and projects. Tsobanakis received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from NTU Athens (Greece) and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University.