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Sustainable Biomass Conversion

Graduate Student Spotlight: Samantha Kelly

Samatha Kelly is a first year PhD student in the Donohue and Noguera labs. She works in late-stage bioprocessing, engineering microbes to break down complex plant structures like lignin and to separate the most useful products. 

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| Sonia Fernandez

It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it. In this case, the "job" is the breakdown of lignin, the structural biopolymer that gives stems, bark and branches their signature woodiness.

| Cameron Rudoph
In a new paper published in Scientific Reports, MSU professor Bruno Basso shows how scientists must use a correction calculation to accurately quantify changes in soil carbon stocks over time.
| Chris Hubbuch

Scientists have long eyed switchgrass as a promising and sustainable source of fuels that can replace gasoline and other petroleum products. New research shows the plant can help slow climate change, but only if grown on the right lands. 

Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center co-investigator Troy Runge has been appointed as the next as the next associate dean for research in the UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

| Madelyn Anderson
Today we spoke to Violeta Matus Acuña, a postdoctoral researcher in the Soil Biology and Ecology Lab with Dr. Lisa Tiemann at Michigan State University. She provides insight on the importance of resilience, relearning, and diversity.
| Madelyn Anderson
Today we spoke to Sarvada Chipkar, a PhD candidate in Ong Research Laboratory at Michigan Technological University. She speaks on the power of positivity and passion when it comes to taking a leap.
| Britta Wellenstein
This week, we spoke with JinHo Lee, a Ph.D. student in the Kravchenko Lab at Michigan State University, who is working to understand soil carbon sequestration and soil pores. Lee obtained his BS and MS in applied life chemistry from Gyeongsang National University in his home country of South Korea.
| Matt Davenport

Among switchgrass’s attractive features are that it’s perennial, low maintenance, and native to many states in the eastern US. But it also has a peculiar behavior working against it that has stymied researchers—at least until now.

| Emilie Lorditch

The mint family of herbs, which includes sage, rosemary, basil, and even woody plants like teak, offers an invigorating jolt to our senses of smell and taste. Michigan State University researchers have found that these plants have diversified their specialized natural characteristics through the evolution of their chemistry.

| Chris Hubbuch

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison are working to develop plant-based fuels that are a key piece of the nation’s blueprint for decarbonizing transportation.

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