The GLBRC postdoc experience
Alumni profiles
Carolina (Caro) Córdova is an assistant professor of agronomy and horticulture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a statewide soil health specialist with UNL Extension. With a PhD in soil science from Iowa State University, Córdova was a postdoctoral researcher and field research coordinator with GLBRC from 2018 to 2022.
Now a senior research manager for the animal genetics firm Genus, Brian Burger joined GLBRC in 2009 after earning a PhD in biology from the University of California-San Diego. Burger spent about 8 years at the center, first as a postdoctoral researcher and later as a staff scientist.
As a postdoctoral researcher in Phil Robertson’s lab at Michigan State University, Ilya Gelfand's research led to a 2013 Nature paper highlighting the potential for growing cellulosic bioenergy crops on marginal farmland. Gelfand is now an associate professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, where he studies biogeochemistry and ecosystem ecology.
With a doctorate in biophysics and more than a decade of experience in career and professional development, Alexandra Schnoes is uniquely qualified as workforce development manager at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. Here she discusses her career path and her vision for recruiting and training the next generation of scientists.
Postdoc profiles
This week we sat down with Jun Feng, a postdoctoral researcher in Ophelia Venturelli's research group at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, to talk about engineering microorganisms for biomanufacturing and what led him to UW–Madison.
Our graduate students and postdoctoral researchers play an enormous role in the transition to a sustainable, resilient, and affordable energy future that is centered on social and economic equality. From lab experiments to field work to classrooms, these leaders of today and tomorrow are our catalysts for energy discovery.