The Center for Bioenergy Innovation’s 2024 annual meeting drew nearly 200 attendees in July, sharing their progress in the pursuit of scientific breakthroughs for sustainable aviation fuel and a robust bioeconomy.
The four-day meeting July 15-18 in Asheville, NC, featured presentations by and networking opportunities for early career scientists who are part of the multi-disciplinary, multi-partner CBI, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
CBI Director Jerry Tuskan kicked off the meeting with welcoming remarks and the introduction of special guests, the CBI board of directors, and members of the Science and Industry Advisory Board.
Presentations by science focus teams followed over the course of the meeting, covering rapid genetics, deconstruction, switchgrass, computational biology, poplar, consolidated bioprocessing to intermediates, lignin valorization, catalytic upgrading, sustainable aviation fuel, and economics and land use modeling.
The meeting also featured a keynote by research and development lead Nelson Barton of sustainable materials and products firm Geno, as he presented on lessons learned in bioconversion scaleup.
A total of 21 early career scientists presented flash talks during the meeting, along with six flash talks from scientists visiting from other Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers: the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, and the Joint BioEnergy Institute.
“CBI’s annual gatherings enable critical discussions among our scientists from multiple institutions and disciplinary backgrounds,” Tuskan said. “Hearing in-person about the latest results and brainstorming new ideas and approaches strengthens the collaborative nature of our work as we pursue solutions for a robust and sustainable bioeconomy supply chain.”
Best Poster awards went to: Amith Devireddy (ORNL), for the poplar team; Samikshya Rijal (University of Georgia) for the switchgrass team, Margaret Bales (ORNL) for the rapid genetics team, Andrew Linz (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) for the deconstruction team, Chanaka (Roshan) Abeyratne (ORNL) for the computational biology team, Jake Kenny (NREL) for the technoeconomic/life cycle analysis team, Angel Pech (Dartmouth College) for the consolidated bioprocessing team; Austin Carroll (ORNL) for the lignin valorization team; and Meijun Li (ORNL) for the catalysis team.
CBI also honored Debra Mohnen of UGA with a Best Team Player Award, and Gregg Beckham of NREL with a Best Collaborator Award.
The meeting included an Early Career dinner, with 73 researchers participating. The evening featured networking opportunities and a presentation on listener engagement by science communications strategist Amy Aines, author of the book “Championing Science — Communicating Your Ideas to Decision Makers.” Aines also presented on the topic of science communication to the full meeting.
The Center for Bioenergy Innovation is one of four Bioenergy Research Centers in the United States sponsored by the DOE’s Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research program. UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.