Interview with Julie Sinistore, former GLBRC Sustainability researcher, who is now a Senior Life Cycle Analyst at Virent, Inc.
GLBRC: What was your role at GLBRC, and when did you work here?
JS: I started in September 2008 at UW-Madison as a research assistant working on the life cycle assessment of cellulosic ethanol production from switchgrass and corn stover. I looked at a variety of different agricultural production scenarios and two different pretreatment systems, taking feedstock from agricultural production to final ethanol generation. life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method for summing all the environmental benefits and burdens from the production, use and disposal of goods and services.
GLBRC: With whom did you work, and on which campus?
JS: I worked with Doug Reinemann at UW-Madison.
GLBRC: What is your current position, and what are your responsibilities?
JS: I started working at Virent part time in May 2012. I defended my thesis at UW-Madison on July 13, and then began working full time at Virent on July 30. My title is Senior Life Cycle Analyst, and I do all the LCA work on projects such as Coca-Cola's initiative to make world's first 100 percent bio-based polyethylene terephthalate [PET] bottle.
The goal of this project is to replace all petroleum-based PET with bio-based PET. Virent is partnering with Coca-Cola to produce the paraxylene needed to produce PET for the Dasani water bottle. Currently, up to 30 percent of the bottle is bio-based.
What's unique about the project is that even though there are already 100 percent bio-based bottles out there, this one will look just like the other, petroleum-based bottles: clear plastic, with the same chemical properties—such as being recyclable—because it will be the exact same substance, except made from renewable products. The paraxylene can be produced from any bio-based starch or sugars, such as corn, corn stover, switchgrass or wood. That's what we're evaluating: the most sustainable and economically viable option.
In addition, I do other internal LCA work and generally monitor the LCA area. I keep up to date on articles, science, biofuels, bio-based plastics and chemicals, agricultural developments in sustainability, regulations in the U.S. and Europe, and the tone of sustainability in areas that affect Virent.
GLBRC: What are some of the most important things you learned as a GLBRC researcher, and how do those lessons help you in your current work?
JS: The most important thing I learned about research was how incredibly variable things like environmental impacts are over space and time, especially in agricultural systems. Greenhouse gas emissions from a field can vary by a factor of 10 or 100 just across the field...scaling that up to a county or region of the U.S. is unfathomable. There is uncertainty and variability that you introduce into the final results, and you realize how fundamentally variable everything is. It's an important lesson for what I do now, because I do the same thing at Virent as I did at GLBRC except instead of ethanol, I look at agricultural systems for producing bio-based diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, and chemicals like paraxylene. I try to apply that lesson that in a company atmosphere that is trying to move to commercialization as opposed to doing basic research.
GLBRC: Where do you see your career going in the future?
JS: In the long-term, I'd like to be more involved in shaping the policies that determine how we evaluate bio-based fuels and chemicals. The Renewable Fuels Standard, for example, is very important for considering cellulosic biofuels: total greenhouse gas emissions from the fuels entire LCA must be 60 percent less than that of gasoline, and there are rules about the calculations and methods that analysts must use to determine whether a fuel meets that standard.
The more I read about it, the more I think it would be better to allow analysts more leeway when choosing these data and analytical approaches. On a daily basis, I wish I could have more influence in writing these standards because I could help improve them, so a very long-term goal would be to move into a policy sphere as I learn more about how policy works and how I could make it better.
GLBRC: Name three people who have inspired you in your career.
JS: Definitely former Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. His whole academic career path is incredibly inspiring—all of these things he's accomplished, from the Nobel Prize to taking on the role of Secretary. Having his tremendous science knowledge is admirable, since I believe that someone who really understands science should hold the role of Secretary of Energy. Through the GLBRC I was actually able to meet him, and he wished me luck on my dissertation defense, which occurred the next day!
My grandmother was very inspiring to me because she was a very tough cookie; she did a lot of things that weren't what society thought women should be doing at the time. She ran a household and also had a master's in library science, and was a head librarian. She always used to joke that she supported women's lib before it was 'a thing.'
Even though she was not in science, she was a very strong woman who bucked the trend of what women were supposed to be doing. As a woman in science and engineering with an advanced degree, I think about her strength a lot as I encounter veiled--or not so veiled--sexism…not that I encounter it every day, but it's still there. So I channel her strength, and think that if she can do it, I can do it.
I would also list all female engineers as people who have influenced me strongly.
GLBRC: Can you remember the moment when you decided that science was the career for you?
JS: I remember the moment I wanted to work in an environmental protection field, which led to a career in science. When I was 10 I saw the movie, "Medicine Man" with Sean Connery. His character is an MD-PhD researcher in a South American rainforest, where he finds a cure for cancer, but can't replicate his experiments. Another researcher is sent to help him as they try to relocate the cure, but the rainforest is being torn down and bulldozers are approaching the village where Connery’s character is working on finding the cure. It's a race against the destruction of the vast natural resource that is the pristine rainforest.
The movie gave me a huge appreciation for the beauty of the natural world and resources we don't even know about, and how modern ways can encroach on this. I had a profound sense of urgency to protect the world for everyone. Whatever you have to do to protect it, that's what I wanted to do. GLBRC: What do you think every current student should know about pursuing a career in science?
JS: Just say "yes"! If you get invited to speak at a conference, or for senior citizens at a library, or in a class, or to submit a poster...even though it sounds scary or you think you're not qualified, just do it. If a person has reached out to you and thinks you're qualified, then you're qualified. You can do it, and the networking and cross-pollination when someone sees you and is impressed by you is really important.
That is how I got my job at Virent; I gave a presentation in a Biological Systems Engineering graduate introductory seminar, and the professor crossed paths with his friend, the co-founder of Virent, on a Madison bike trail shortly afterward. They talked and the professor suggested the co-founder get in touch with me to ask about LCA software, and that gave rise to a correspondence that led to my current job.
So, don't blow off anything! Even if it's a 15-minute presentation at an 8:00am seminar where no one seems to be paying attention, don't blow it off because it could mean a job someday.
GLBRC: What legacy do you want for yourself and/or your work?
JS: Of course, I want to change the world; I want Virent to have a major solution to liquid transportation fuel, renewable chemicals and climate change problems. I want to be a major player in ensuring the system is as environmentally beneficial as possible, and if my name were attached to that, it would be great.
Fundamentally, I want to change the world for the better, and make the planet a more happy and healthy place for everyone whether they ‘believe’ in climate change or not. Even the naysayers and doubters—I want them to enjoy happy, healthy lives with an atmosphere that continues to function normally.