Jay Keasling is Professor of Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California Berkeley, a Senior Faculty Scientist and Director of the Physical Biosciences Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Director of the Berkeley Center for Synthetic Biology, and Chief Executive Officer of Joint Bioenergy Institute. Dr. Keasling’s research focuses on engineering microorganisms for environmentally friendly synthesis of small molecules or degradation of environmental contaminants. Keasling’s laboratory has engineered bacteria and yeast to produce polymers, a precursor to the anti-malarial drug artemisinin, advanced biofuels and soil microorganisms to accumulate uranium and to degrade nerve agents. He is the recipient of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Professional Progress Award (2007) and Scientist of the Year, Discovery Magazine (2006). He is a Fellow of the American Academy for Microbiology (2007) and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (2000).
Harvey Blanch is Professor of Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California Berkeley, and Senior Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research has examined transport, kinetics and thermodynamics in enzymatic and microbial processes. He developed enzymatic and microbial routes for the conversion of lignocellulosic materials to sugars and their subsequent fermentation to ethanol for gasohol. His research on enzyme technology includes kinetics and mechanism of enzyme action in non-aqueous environments. His studies on metabolism and kinetics of bacterial, plant and hybridoma cells have been important in developing and optimizing large-scale processes. More recently, he has employed molecular thermodynamics to describe protein separations processes, including aqueous two-phase extraction and precipitation, hydrogel behavior and protein aggregation. He is the recipient of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Award (1996), The American Chemical Society Johnson Award (1995), and is a Founding Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (1992), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2004) and is a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering (2005).
Ellen Ford is the Chief Operating Officer of JBEI. She began her career in operations management with the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in 1990. She then went to Gap, Inc. where she became the Director of Corporate Operations and managed operations for three California campuses and one New Mexico location. While there, she received a President’s Award for Outstanding Customer Service. Ms. Ford joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2002 as the Business Manager for the Physical Biosciences Division, managing financial and administrative operations for the division. During this period, she received three Outstanding Performance Awards for her contributions to numerous LBNL initiatives which focused on the development and implementation of improved business practices and procedures. Ms. Ford was a key contributor to the Joint BioEnergy Institute’s proposal development and submission, and was appointed COO of JBEI in December 2007.
