2nd Annual
Partnerships for Environmental Improvement and
Economic Development Conference
Wood and Cellulose: Building Blocks for Chemicals, Fuels and Advanced Materials
| Background | Conference Sponsors | Preliminary Program | Poster & Presentation Abstracts | Papers | Registration |
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2nd Annual
Partnerships for Environmental Improvement and Wood and Cellulose: Building Blocks for Chemicals, Fuels and Advanced Materials |
Speaker Biographies
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Scott Canonico Environmental Health and Safety International Paper |
| J. Scott Canonico,
P.E. is Environment, Health and Safety Manager at International Paper’s pulp and
paper mill in Ticonderoga, New York. He has also held with International Paper the
position of environmental engineer when he led remediation and closure efforts at an
industrial landfill. Prior to embarking on his career as an environmental professional,
Scott was an infantry officer in the U.S. Army. He held various positions including rifle
company executive officer and advanced to the grade of Captain before leaving active
service. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy and a
master’s degree from the Colorado School of Mines.
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Helena Chum Chemistry for BioEnergy Systems Center National Renewable Energy Laboratory Golden, CO |
| Helena Chum, is
the Director of the Chemistry for BioEnergy Systems Center at the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL), (1617 Cole Blvd. Golden Colorado 80401; (303) 275-2949). Her
research areas are in the development of technologies for the conversion of biomass and a
variety of organic wastes into fuels, including hydrogen, chemicals, electricity, and high
value materials. To these and other fields she contributed more than 100 papers and 20
patents. She participated in the development of the Office of Science and Technology
Policy’s National Environmental Technology Strategy released in 1995. She is a Fellow
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the International
Academy of Wood Science. She is a member of the Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel and a
member of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy Board of Directors. She
represents NREL in the Council for Chemical Research. She serves in the Office of
Industrial Technologies’ Industry of the Future Program as a NREL representative to
the Laboratory Coordinating Council. She chaired this Council in
1997. She is the Associate Editor of the Clean Processes and Products journal (Springer).
She contributed to the development of the "Brasilia Statement Directives and Action
Plan for Solar, Wind and Biomass Renewable Energy Development in Brazil" (1995). She
has her B. Sc., Chemistry/Chemical Education and her Ph.D., in Physical Chemistry from the
University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Send e-mail to Helena_Chum@nrel.gov)
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| Christian Demeter Founding Principal and CEO Antares Group Incorporated |
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| Mr. Demeter has 21
years’ energy research and management experience. He currently provides policy,
economic and financial analysis support to clients in the electric power and
transportation sectors and to several federal agencies and laboratories such as NREL,
Sandia and Oak Ridge. His clients also include US AID and members of the World Bank Group.
He has authored or co-authored more than 100 papers and reports on the emerging energy
technologies markets (fossil, nuclear and renewable) and their potential impacts on the
environment and the economy. He has testified on air quality compliance cost issues in
electric utility rate cases. He is past President of the International Association for
Energy Economics National Capital Area Chapter. The topic of Biomass for Power, Fuels, and Chemicals has been an area of special interest to Mr. Demeter for the past decade. He has served on many roundtable discussions, review committees and forums on the topic. He currently is investigating unique financial mechanisms such as green power market insurance to facilitate green power marketing and is advising a consortium of land owners, universities, and power companies called the Salix Consortium focused on cofiring coal and biomass. He also is advising project developers on biomass combustion and conversion options.
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| Stephen Fitzpatrick Biofine/Biometics Waltham, MA |
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| Dr. Stephen W.
Fitzpatrick is a chemical engineer with over twenty five years of wide-ranging experience
in the petrochemical, chemical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He is
inventor of the Biofine technology and founder of Biofine Inc. In June 1999 Biofine was
awarded the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award by the E.P.A. Dr. Fitzpatrick is
also President and Co-founder of BioMetics Inc., a process engineering consulting and
design company. Dr Fitzpatrick holds chemical engineering degrees from the University of
Manchester, U.K. and is a chartered engineer (U.K.).
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Michael E. Himmel Biochemistry Department Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO |
| During my 20-year
term at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (formerly SERI) in Golden, CO, I have
worked to support many technical aspects of the Department of Energy’s Biofuels
program. More recently, I have been responsible for establishing the facilities and
staff necessary to pursue projects in protein engineering, specifically cellulases.
Today, I manage the award-winning Enzyme Technology Team and the 5 academic subcontracts
that support this work. We have assembled world-class protein purification and
characterization facilities at NREL, with special emphasis this past year on robotics
systems for screening libraries derived from directed evolution technology. I have
contributed 275 peer-reviewed papers and meeting abstracts, 4 books, and 16 patents to the
literature. I have also chaired or co-chaired 15 international meetings in the field
of biochemistry and biotechnology. I was recently elected to be the vice-chair of
the new Gordon Research Conference on "Cellulases and Cellulosomes" scheduled
for summer, 2001. I live in Littleton, CO with my wife, Rita. My hobbies
include antique weaponry and vintage watches.
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John M. Irving McNeil Generating Station Burlington Electric Department Burlington,VT |
| John M. Irving is
the Plant Manager of the McNeil Generating Station in Burlington, Vermont. He is
responsible for the operation and maintenance of a 50 mW wood, gas and oil fired
generating station for the Burlington Electric Department. He is also the Project
Manager for BED for the $20 million biomass gasification project at the McNeil
Station. Prior to joining Burlington Electric, Mr. Irving was employed by C.T. Main
Inc., a major architect engineering firm in Boston. He has over 26 years of
experience in the design, construction, startup and operation of generating facilities
fueled with coal, wood, natural gas, oil and red liquor. Mr. Irving's most recent
responsibilities at C.T. Main included serving as Project Engineer, Mechanical
Construction Engineer, and Start-up Engineer at the McNeil Station. Mr. Irving
received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maine and is a Registered
Professional Engineer in Maine and Vermont.
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Robert H. Marchessault McGill University |
| Born in Montreal,
Dr. Robert H. Marchessault completed doctoral research at McGill and postdoctoral studies
at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, he spent several years as a research scientist at
American Viscose Corporation in Philadelphia. He then joined the College of Forestry
in Syracuse. In 1969, he returned to Montreal as Professor and Director of the
Department of Chemistry of Université de Montréal. From 1978 to 1987, Dr.
Marchessault was head of the Xerox Research Centre of Canada in Toronto. Under his
direction, this laboratory grew to be recognized as one of Canada’s leading
industrial research centres in the field of organic materials. In 1987 Dr.
Marchessault undertook a five year appointment as Industrial Research Professor funded by
Xerox-NSERC at McGill University and in 1993 he was appointed to the E.B. Eddy Chair of
Industrial Chemistry.
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| James P. Nakas Faculty of Environmental and Forest Biology SUNY- College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse, NY |
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| James Nakas currently teaches
Microbiology, Microbial Physiology and Microbial Ecology at the College of Environmental
Science and Forestry. He holds memberships with The American Academy of Microbiology, The
American Society for Microbiology and The Society of Industrial Microbiology and was the
President for the Central New York Branch of The Society for Microbiology during 1991 and
1992. Nakas also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Industrial
Microbiology and Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Since 1987, he has
published 26 articles.
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| Kerry Thompson Arizona Chemical Savannah Technology Center Savannah, GA |
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| Kerry L. Thompson
is the Group Leader of Innovative Technologies in Technology for Arizona Chemical, a
company of International Paper. He received his B.S. degree from the University of
Illinois at Chicago and Ph.D. from Purdue University, with Herbert C. Brown. He
joined SCM Organics (now Millennium Specialty Chemicals) in 1978, working on terpene
chemistry for aroma and flavor compounds and related materials. He joined Reichhold
Chemicals in 1984 as group leader of terpene products technology and in 1989, joined
Arizona Chemical as part of their purchase of Reichhold's Naval Stores business. Dr.
Thompson was the group leader, responsible for terpene technology and waterborne tackifier
technology until 1999, when he was appointed to his current position, following
International Paper's acquisition of Union Camp.
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R. James Woolsey Shea & Gardner Washington, D.C. |
| R. James Woolsey
is, in 1999, a partner at the law firm of Shea & Gardner in Washington, D.C. He
returned to the firm in January 1995 after serving two years as Director of Central
Intelligence. He has practiced there for eighteen years, on four occasions, since 1973. Mr. Woolsey's law practice has been in the fields of civil litigation, alternative dispute resolution, and corporate transactions; increasingly his practice has been international. He has served recently as counsel for major American and overseas corporations in both commercial arbitrations and the negotiation of joint ventures and other agreements. He serves regularly as a neutral (both as an arbitrator and a mediator) in commercial disputes between major companies. Mr. Woolsey is presently a member of the Boards of Directors of : Sun HealthCare Group, Inc.; BC International Corporation; Fibersense Technology Corporation, and Linsang Partners, LLC. He has served in the past as a member of the Boards of: USF&G; Yurie Systems, Inc.; Martin Marietta; British Aerospace, Inc.; Fairchild Industries; Titan Corporation; and DynCorp. Besides serving as Director of Central Intelligence, Mr. Woolsey has served in the U.S. government as: Ambassador to the Negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Vienna, 1989-1991; Under Secretary of the Navy, 1977-1979; and General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, 1970-73. He was also appointed by the President as Delegate at Large to the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) and Nuclear and Space Arms Talks (NST), and served in that capacity on a part-time basis in Geneva, 1983-1986. During military service in the U.S. Army he served as an adviser on the U.S. Delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I), Helsinki and Vienna, 1969-1970. Mr. Woolsey has been a Director or Trustee of numerous civic organizations, including The Smithsonian Institution, where he was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents, The Goldwater Scholarship Foundation, The Aerospace Corporation, and Stanford University. He has been a member of: The Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the U.S. (Rumsfeld Commission), 1998; The President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform, 1989; The President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management (Packard Commission), 1985-1986; and The President's Commission on Strategic Forces (Scowcroft Commission), 1983. He is currently a Trustee of The Center for Strategic & International Studies and Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Clean Fuels Foundation. Mr. Woolsey was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1941. He is married to Suzanne Haley Woolsey, the Chief Operating Officer of the National Academy of Sciences, and they have three sons: Robert, Daniel, and Benjamin. Mr. Woolsey attended Tulsa public schools, graduating from Tulsa Central High School in 1959. He received his B.A. Degree in 1963 from Stanford University (With Great Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa), an M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar 1963-65, and an LL.B from Yale Law School in 1968, where he was Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Mr. Woolsey is a frequent contributor to major publications, and from time to time gives public speeches, on the subjects of foreign affairs, defense, energy, and intelligence.
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| Peter A. Zugenmaier Clausthal University of Technology Institute of Physical Chemistry Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Federal Republic of Germany |
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| Born 1936 in
Karlsruhe/Germany Curriculum Vitae:
Positions:
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