Ralph and his collaborators were honored for developing and innovatively applying advanced analytical techniques in ways that enhance understanding of lignin biosynthesis and structure in trees and provide a basis for new ways to deconstruct wood and use lignin.
Entomology doctoral student Allison Zahorec has found meaning through researching tiny arthropods, helping children overcome fear of insects and experiencing scientists opening up to social justice.
Chemists at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center have developed a new technology that converts biomass into both carbohydrates and lignin-derived aromatic monomers in a single step.
This week we spoke with Balendra Sah, a postdoctoral researcher in Robert Landick’s lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, to talk about his research into engineering bacteria to make biofuels and what led him to UW–Madison.
"Restoring current marginal croplands to perennial grasses can immediately begin to reverse and improve these trends, thereby offering a clear solution and pathway to improve agricultural sustainability," says Tyler Lark, a researcher with the GLBRC and UW–Madison’s Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies.
The fungi that live in the seeds and in the leaves of plants play a part in the overall health and productivity of their host plants. That role isn’t well-defined despite big implications of that understanding for farmers and other land managers.
You might know sorghum as an edible grain. But there are some sorghum varieties, grown on marginal land with little water, which were developed specifically to turn their biomass into sustainable biofuel and bioproducts. John Mullet, a biologist at Texas A&M University, tells us how sorghum’s historical — and literal — roots could play a big role in our energy future.
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.
Researchers at GLBRC and the South China University of Technology have developed a faster and less chemically intensive spectroscopy-based procedure called the Cysteine-Assisted Sulfuric Acid (CASA) method. The approach uses a new reagent combination of the amino acid cysteine and sulfuric acid to completely dissolve lignocellulosic biomass under less extreme conditions than traditional methods.
A key discovery by Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center scientists reveals how root interactions among Midwest prairie perennials, including the bioenergy crop switchgrass, increase soil carbon when grown in specific pairings. These beneficial plant combinations also created more soil pores that support fungi that are associated with soil carbon accrual.
This week we sat down with Surajudeen Omolabake, a graduate student in Shannon Stahl’s lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, to talk about creating useful chemicals from wood, his dogs Sky and Cecille, and what led him to UW–Madison.
