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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
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B

Biographical Sketches

Lester B. Lave (chair until May 9, 2011) was the Harry B. and James H. Higgins Professor of Economics and Finance, a professor of engineering and public policy, and director of the university’s Green Design Institute at the Carnegie Mellon University before his death in 2011. Dr. Lave’s work focused on environmental quality and risk management, and more specifically on modeling the effects of global climate change, improving social regulations, risk perception and communication, the value of information in tests for carcinogenicity, highway safety, electricity generation and use, and pollution prevention. As the head of the university-wide Green Design Initiative, Dr. Lave collaborated with private businesses and with government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Energy to address the fundamental problems in pollution prevention. A recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Society for Risk Analysis, Dr. Lave was a member of the Institute of Medicine and served on numerous NRC committees, including the Panel on Energy Efficiency as chair and Committee on America’s Energy Future as a member. Dr. Lave received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

Ingrid C. Burke (cochair from May 9, 2011) is director of the Haub School and Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming. She also is a professor and holds a Wyoming Excellence Chair in the Departments of Botany and Renewable Resources. She is a former professor and University Distinguished Teaching Scholar in the College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University. Dr. Burke is an ecosystem scientist, with particular expertise in carbon and nitrogen cycling of semi-arid ecosystems. She directed the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research team for 6 years, as well as other large interdisciplinary research teams funded by the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Adminstration, and the National Institutes of Health. She was designated a U.S. Presidential Faculty Fellow, has served on the NRC Board on Environmental Science and Toxicology, and was a member of the NRC committee tasked with developing recommendations on A New Biology for the 21st Century: Ensuring That the United States Leads the Coming Biology Revolution.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
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Dr. Burke also serves as an associate editor for the journal Ecological Applications and is the new chair of the advisory committee for the Greater Yellowstone National Environmental Observatory Network research site. She received her Ph.D. in botany from the University of Wyoming.

Wallace E. Tyner (cochair from May 9, 2011) is the James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University and co-director of the Purdue Center for Research on Energy Systems and Policy. His research interests are in the areas of energy, agricultural, and natural resource policy analysis, and structural and sectoral adjustment in developing economies. His work in energy economics has encompassed oil, natural gas, coal, oil shale, biomass, ethanol from agricultural sources, and solar energy. Most of his recent work has focused on economic and policy analysis for biofuels, with international work on agricultural trade and policy issues in developing economies. Dr. Tyner received the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Distinguished Policy Contribution Award in 2005. In 2007 he received the “Energy Patriot Award” from Senator Richard Lugar. In 2009, he was named the Outstanding Graduate Educator in the College of Agriculture, received the College Team award (with colleagues) for biofuel research, and received (with colleagues) the AAEA Quality of Communication award. He teaches a graduate course in benefit-cost analysis. Dr. Tyner is author or co-author of three books: Energy Resources and Economic Development in India, Western Coal: Promise or Problem (with R. J. Kalter), and A Perspective on U.S. Farm Problems and Agricultural Policy (with Lance McKinzie and Tim Baker). Dr. Tyner has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland.

Virginia H. Dale is director of the Center for BioEnergy Sustainability, corporate fellow, and group leader of the Landscape Ecology and Regional Analysis Group in the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Dale’s primary research interests are in landscape design for bioenergy, environmental decision-making, land-use change, landscape ecology, and ecological modeling. She has worked on developing tools for resource management, vegetation recovery subsequent to disturbances, effects of climate change on forests, and integrating socioeconomic and ecological models of land-use change. Dr. Dale has served on national scientific advisory boards for five federal agencies (the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, and Interior). She has also served on several NRC committees. She is editor-in-chief of the journal Environmental Management and is on the editorial board for Ecological Indicators, Ecological Economics, and the Journal of Land Use Science. She was chair of the U.S. Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology and has served on the scientific review team for The Nature Conservancy. She served on the Executive Committee of the Policy Team for Southern Appalachian Assessment, which won Vice President Gore’s Hammer Award. Dr. Dale has a Ph.D. in mathematical ecology from the University of Washington.

Kathleen E. Halvorsen is an associate professor of natural resource policy at Michigan Technological University. She has a joint appointment with the Department of Social Sciences and the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science. Her research focuses on two main areas. One relates to the development of woody bioenergy in the United States and includes identification of barriers and opportunities related to this development. She views bioenergy as an important tool in the climate change mitigation toolbox. Her other

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
×

area of research is aimed at understanding relationships to water resources in the United States and Mexico. That research includes risk perceptions of water-borne disease and ecosystem service protection. Over the years, she also has studied public participation and organizational change within the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Dr. Halvorsen received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Jason D. Hill is an assistant professor in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research interests include the technological, environmental, economic, and social aspects of sustainable bioenergy production from current and next-generation feedstocks. His work on the life-cycle impacts of transportation biofuels has been published in the journals Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. His current research focuses on the effects that the expanding global biofuel industry is having on climate change, land use, biodiversity, and human health. Dr. Hill has testified before U.S. Senate committees on the use of diverse prairie biomass for biofuel production and on the greenhouse-gas implications of ethanol and biodiesel. He has also performed independent analysis for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NRC, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Hill served on the NRC Steering Committee on Expanding Biofuel Production: Sustainability and Transition to Advanced Biofuels. Dr. Hill received his Ph.D. in plant biological sciences from the University of Minnesota.

Stephen R. Kaffka is director of the California Biomass Collaborative and extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He is chair of the BioEnergy Work Group for the University of California’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. From 2003 to 2007, he was director of the Long Term Research on Agricultural Systems Project, in which he led the development of current and new projects focusing on sustainable agriculture. His commodity assignments include sugar and oilseed crops. Since joining the university in 1992, he has also carried out research on water quality and agriculture in the Upper Klamath Basin, and the reuse of saline drainage water for crop, forage, energy biomass feedstocks, and livestock production in salt-affected areas of the San Joaquin Valley. He participates on several advisory committees for the California Energy Commission and California Air Resources Board, including the Bioenergy Interagency Work Group as an ex officio member. He has received meritorious service awards from the American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists and the Soil and Water Conservation Society. He is past president of the California chapter of the American Society of Agronomy and past section leader for the American Society of Agronomy’s division on environmental quality. He holds a Ph.D. in agronomy from Cornell University.

Kirk C. Klasing is a professor of animal nutrition in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis. His research into the impact of nutrition on immunochemistry and disease resistance encompasses three interrelated areas. He examines the impact of an immune response against infectious diseases on growth and reproduction. He is interested in identifying the cytokines and hormones that the immune system releases in order to direct nutritional resources towards defense instead of growth and reproduction. Dr. Klasing strives to quantify the nutritional costs of these immune defenses, and investigates the impact of an animal’s diet on the immune response. He also explores the diverse nutritional and immune strategies of carnivorous, nectarivorous, herbivorous, and granivorous animals. Dr. Klasing has served on several NRC committees, including the Committee on Minerals and Toxic Substances in Diets and Water for Animals as chair and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
×

the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources as a current member. He has received the Poultry Science Research Award from the Poultry Science Association, the BioServ Award from the American Institute of Nutrition, and the Lilly Animal Scientist Award. He holds a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry from Cornell University.

Stephen J. McGovern has over 35 years of experience in the refining and petrochemical industries. He has been a principal of PetroTech Consultants since 2000, providing consulting services on various refining technologies, including clean fuel projects and refining economics. He has assisted numerous refiners in the evaluation of gasoline and diesel desulfurization technologies, catalytic cracking, and environmental issues. He has provided technical advice to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and commercial enterprises for the production of biofuels. Previously, he was with Mobil Technology Company, where he was involved in process development and refinery technical support. Dr. McGovern has 17 patents and has written many publications. He has lectured, published, and consulted on refining technology and environmental issues. He is a licensed professional engineer in New Jersey and a past director of the Fuels and Petrochemicals Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton University.

John A. Miranowski is a professor of agricultural economics and of environmental and resource economics at Iowa State University. His background is in natural resource management, agricultural research decision-making, and environmental policy. He served as chair of the Department of Economics from 1995 to 2000. Dr. Miranowski has further expertise in soil conservation, water quality, land management, energy, and global change. He has previously served as director of the Resources and Technology Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 1984-1994; as executive coordinator of the Secretary of Agriculture’s Policy Coordination Council, and special assistant to the deputy secretary of agriculture, 1990-1991; and as the Gilbert F. White Fellow at Resources for the Future, 1981-1982. Dr. Miranowski headed the U.S. delegation to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Joint Working Party on Agriculture and the Environment, 1993-1995. He has served as a member of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Risk Assessment of Federal Coordinating Committee on Science, Education, and Technology, 1990-1992; director of the Executive Board of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 1989-1992; and director of the Executive Board of the American Agricultural Economics Association, 1987-1990. Dr. Miranowski served as a member of the NRC Panel on Alternative Liquid Transportation Fuels, and the Committee on Expanding Biofuel Production—Lessons from the Upper Midwest for Sustainability. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

Aristides A. N. Patrinos is president of Synthetic Genomics. He served on the staff of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and joined the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 1988 and led the development of DOE’s program in global environmental change. From 1995 to 2006, Dr. Patrinos was the associate director for biological and environmental research in DOE’s Office of Science, where he oversaw research activities in the human and microbial genome, structural biology, nuclear medicine, and global environmental change. He also directed the DOE component of the U.S. Human Genome Project and was the DOE representative to the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Climate Change Technology Program. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, including three Presidential Rank Awards for meritorious and distinguished service and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
×

two Secretary of Energy gold medals. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Meteorological Society, and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Geophysical Union. He has served on the NRC Committees on Strategic Advice on the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and on America’s Energy Future. Dr. Patrinos received his Ph.D. in mechanical and astronautical sciences from Northwestern University.

Jerald L. Schnoor is the Allen S. Henry Chair Professor of Environmental Engineering and codirector of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research at the University of Iowa. Dr. Schnoor is a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his pioneering work using mathematical models in science-policy decisions. He testified several times before Congress on the environmental effects of acid deposition and the importance of passing the 1990 Clean Air Act. Dr. Schnoor chaired the Board of Scientific Counselors for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development from 2000-2004. Currently, he is one of three co-directors for the National Science Foundation Project Office on a Collaborative Large-scale Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental Research (CLEANER). As editor-in-chief of Environmental Science and Technology, Dr. Schnoor guides the journal in both environmental engineering and environmental science. His research interests are in mathematical modeling of water quality, phytoremediation, and impact of carbon emissions on global change. He conducts research on the aquatic effects modeling of acid precipitation, global change and biogeochemistry, groundwater and hazardous wastes, and exposure risk assessment modeling. Dr. Schnoor has served on several NRC committees including the Committee on Water Implications of Biofuels Production in the United States and the Civil Engineering Peer Committee. Dr. Schnoor received his Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Texas.

David Schweikhardt is a professor in the Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Department at Michigan State University. He specializes in agricultural and international trade policy. In particular, his work examines the implications of North American Free Trade Agreement and the Uruguay Round Agreement of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade on U.S. and Michigan agriculture; analysis of U.S. commodity programs; law, economics, and the analysis of changes in legal and economic institutions; political economy of agricultural and trade policy decision-making processes; legal issues in commodity checkoff programs; and labeling of genetically modified food products. Dr. Schweikhardt received a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Michigan State University.

Theresa L. Selfa is assistant professor in environmental studies at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). Her current research focuses on biofuel policy and attitudes. Additional research interests include food and agriculture, development, and political ecology. Prior to joining the SUNY-ESF faculty, she was assistant professor of sociology at Kansas State University. She has expertise in rural, environmental, agricultural, and development sociology, with research experience in Brazil, Philippines, Europe, and the United States. She was a postdoctoral associate in Washington State on a project examining alternative agriculture and food systems. She has worked on interdisciplinary water quality projects assessing impacts of farmers’ management behavior on water quality in an agricultural watershed in central Kansas and in Devon, England. She is the principal investigator on a study on the impacts of biofuels on rural communities in Kansas and Iowa funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and is a coprincipal investigator on research assessing farmers’ land-use decisions regarding

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
×

advanced biofuel crops funded by the National Science Foundation. Her work has been published in Society and Natural Resources, Environment and Planning A, Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, and Environmental Science and Policy. Dr. Selfa received her Ph.D. in development sociology from Cornell University.

Brent Sohngen is a professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at Ohio State University. His research interest is in modeling land-use and land-cover change, economics of nonpoint source pollution, and valuing environmental change. Projects that he is working on include one on forests, economics, and global climate change, and the global timber market and forestry data project. Dr. Sohngen received his Ph.D. in natural resource and environmental economics from Yale University.

J. Andres Soria is an assistant professor of wood chemistry in the Department of Forest Sciences at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He also has an appointment with the School of Applied Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. He worked as a researcher and instructor at the University of Idaho from 2002 to 2005. Dr. Soria’s research involves utilizing waste and undervalued biomass to create products ranging from fuels, additives, and chemical feedstocks from Alaskan species. Dr. Soria also performs research on agricultural byproducts and wastes. He teaches courses in the area of energy and forest products. Dr. Soria’s honors include a 2005 Outstanding Graduate Student, Department of Forest Products, University of Idaho; a Stillinger Endowment recipient, University of Idaho, 2002-2005; and a Foster Fellowship recipient, University of Idaho, 2003-2005. He earned his Ph.D. in natural resources from the University of Idaho.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
×
Page 291
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
×
Page 292
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
×
Page 293
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
×
Page 294
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
×
Page 295
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2011. Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13105.
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Page 296
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In the United States, we have come to depend on plentiful and inexpensive energy to support our economy and lifestyles. In recent years, many questions have been raised regarding the sustainability of our current pattern of high consumption of nonrenewable energy and its environmental consequences. Further, because the United States imports about 55 percent of the nation's consumption of crude oil, there are additional concerns about the security of supply. Hence, efforts are being made to find alternatives to our current pathway, including greater energy efficiency and use of energy sources that could lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as nuclear and renewable sources, including solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels. The United States has a long history with biofuels and the nation is on a course charted to achieve a substantial increase in biofuels.

Renewable Fuel Standard evaluates the economic and environmental consequences of increasing biofuels production as a result of Renewable Fuels Standard, as amended by EISA (RFS2). The report describes biofuels produced in 2010 and those projected to be produced and consumed by 2022, reviews model projections and other estimates of the relative impact on the prices of land, and discusses the potential environmental harm and benefits of biofuels production and the barriers to achieving the RFS2 consumption mandate.

Policy makers, investors, leaders in the transportation sector, and others with concerns for the environment, economy, and energy security can rely on the recommendations provided in this report.

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