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Biobased Industrial Products: Priorities for Research and Commercialization (2000)

Chapter: Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2000. Biobased Industrial Products: Priorities for Research and Commercialization. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5295.
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B—
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

Charles J. Arntzen (Co-chair) is the president and chief executive officer of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Inc., in Ithaca, New York. Dr. Arntzen received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in cell physiology. His research interests include cell physiology, biochemistry and development, photosynthesis and chloroplast biogenesis, and plant biotechnology, especially in the use of plants for drug discovery and production of pharmaceuticals. He has edited five books and the Encyclopedia of Agricultural Science and has coauthored more than 160 publications. Dr. Arntzen was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1983 and to that of India in 1984.

Bruce E. Dale (Co-chair) is professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Michigan State University, East Lansing. He also holds an appointment as professor of agricultural engineering at Michigan State University. Professor Dale received his Ph.D. from Purdue University. His research interests include integrated utilization of renewable resources, bioremediation, and identification and elimination of rate-limiting steps in biological systems.

Roger N. Beachy is a holder of the Scripps Family Chair and a member of the Department of Cell Biology at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, where he is head of the Division of Plant Biology. He is also co-director of an international science training program for researchers from developing countries, the International Laboratory for Tropical Ag-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2000. Biobased Industrial Products: Priorities for Research and Commercialization. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5295.
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Page 145

ricultural Biotechnology. Dr. Beach received a B.S. degree in biology from Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana, and a Ph.D. degree in plant pathology from Michigan State University. Dr. Beachy's interests include plant virology and phytopathology, plant gene expression and agricultural biotechnology. He is a member of a numerous scientific societies and has served on previous committees of the National Research Council in areas of agricultural policy and biotechnology. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1997.

James N. BeMiller is a professor in the Department of Food Sciences and director of the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research at Purdue University. He received his Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from Purdue University. Professor BeMiller's research interest is carbohydrate chemistry, in particular determination of chemical structures, modification of chemical and molecular structures, and structure-functional property relationships of carbohydrate polymers as related to practical applications of carbohydrates.

Richard R. Burgess is a professor of oncology at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has also been director of the university's Biotechnology Center since it was started in 1984. He obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at Harvard University. Dr. Burgess consults with a number of biotechnology companies and plays an active role in educating the public about biotechnology.

Paul Gallagher is associate professor of agricultural economics at Iowa State University. He received a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Minnesota in 1983. Dr. Gallagher's research interests include price analysis, policy analysis, and agricultural marketing.

Ralph W. F. Hardy is a plant biochemist with research and management activities in both the nonprofit and for-profit private sectors. Dr. Hardy received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin. Until September 1995, he was president and chief executive officer of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He currently serves on the Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Corporation Board of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dr. Hardy has volunteered for numerous National Research Council study committees. He has been a member of the NRC's Board on Agricultural and Natural Resources, Board on Biology, and Commission on Life Sciences. Dr. Hardy is currently a member of the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2000. Biobased Industrial Products: Priorities for Research and Commercialization. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5295.
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Page 146

Donald L. Johnson is vice president and director of research and development for the Grain Processing Corporation, Muscatine, Iowa. Dr. Johnson received his Sc.D. in chemical engineering from Washington University. His primary interests are in the utilization and processing of renewable resources for food ingredients and industrial chemicals. Recent emphasis is on developing bulk and specialty chemicals from carbohydrate-containing raw materials. Dr. Johnson was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993.

T. Kent Kirk is director of the Institute for Microbial and Biochemical Technology at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. He is also professor of bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, and adjunct professor of wood and paper science at North Carolina State University. Dr. Kirk received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and plant pathology from North Carolina State University. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1988.

Ganesh M. Kishore is director of Ceregen Technology, a unit of Monsanto Company. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Indiana Institute of Science. Dr. Kishore's research interests include glyphosate tolerance in key agronomic target crops and crop quality with specific emphasis on carbohydrate and lipid improvement.

Alexander M. Klibanov is professor of chemistry and a member of the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in chemical enzymology from Moscow University in Russia. Professor Klibanov's research interests include enzyme technology, stability and stabilization of proteins, and nonaquenous biochemistry. He was elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 1992 and to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993

John Pierce is director of discovery research at DuPont Agricultural Enterprise. In this capacity he directs the efforts of a diverse group of life scientists who are using modern technologies to enhance the food, feed, and industrial materials uses of major agronomic crops. Dr. Pierce received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Michigan State University.

Jacqueline V. Shanks is an associate professor of chemical engineering at Rice University. She received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Shanks's research interests include bioengineering aspects of pharmaceuticals production from plant tissue culture, in situ nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for char-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2000. Biobased Industrial Products: Priorities for Research and Commercialization. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5295.
×

Page 147

acterization of cellular physiology and metabolism, and phytoremediation.

Daniel I. C. Wang is Chevron professor of chemical engineering and director of the Biotechnology Process Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Wang received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include transport phenomena in animal cell bioreactors, biosensors in bioprocess monitoring and control, protein purification and protein refolding in downstream processing, bioreactor design in viscous fermentations, and oxygen transfer in fermentation vessels. He served on the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology, the Board on Biology's standing Committee on Biotechnology, and the National Academy of Engineering's Bioengineering Peer Review Committee; he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1986.

Janet Westpheling is an associate professor of genetics at the University of Georgia. She received her Ph.D. in genetics from the John Innes Institute in England. The primary focus of Dr. Westpheling's research is control of gene expression in the bacterium Streptomyces with emphasis on the study of genes involved in morphogenesis and secondary metabolism, the control of carbon utilization, cellular physiology, and primary metabolism.

J. Gregory Zeikus, is president and chief executive officer of MBI International (formerly the Michigan Biotechnology Institute). He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University. In 1992 Dr. Zeikus received an honorary degree (Doctor of Honoris Causa) from the University of Ghent, Belgium. Dr. Zeikus's research interests focus on the biocatalytic synthesis of organic compounds under extreme environmental conditions of temperature and substrate product concentration.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2000. Biobased Industrial Products: Priorities for Research and Commercialization. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5295.
×
Page 144
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2000. Biobased Industrial Products: Priorities for Research and Commercialization. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5295.
×
Page 145
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2000. Biobased Industrial Products: Priorities for Research and Commercialization. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5295.
×
Page 146
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2000. Biobased Industrial Products: Priorities for Research and Commercialization. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5295.
×
Page 147
Biobased Industrial Products: Priorities for Research and Commercialization Get This Book
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Petroleum-based industrial products have gradually replaced products derived from biological materials. However, biologically based products are making a comeback—because of a threefold increase in farm productivity and new technologies.

Biobased Industrial Products envisions a biobased industrial future, where starch will be used to make biopolymers and vegetable oils will become a routine component in lubricants and detergents.

Biobased Industrial Products overviews the U.S. land resources available for agricultural production, summarizes plant materials currently produced, and describes prospects for increasing varieties and yields.

The committee discusses the concept of the biorefinery and outlines proven and potential thermal, mechanical, and chemical technologies for conversion of natural resources to industrial applications.

The committee also illustrates the developmental dynamics of biobased products through existing examples, as well as products still on the drawing board, and it identifies priorities for research and development.

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