Note: Coffee and snacks will precede the seminar at 3 p.m. in the Ford ES&T first-floor atrium

Gregg Beckham, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

"Conversion of heterogeneous waste feedstocks to single bioproducts through chemical catalysis and metabolic engineering"

Abstract: The conversion of waste feedstocks to useful products is a key driver for enabling the circular economy. This talk will review our team’s recent efforts in the development of processes that combine chemical catalysis and engineered microbes to transform heterogeneous waste feedstocks into single products, with a particular emphasis on our activities in lignin valorization and waste plastics.

Bio: Gregg T. Beckham is a Senior Research Fellow and Group Leader at NREL. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering at MIT in 2007. He leads and works with an interdisciplinary team at NREL on the development of sustainable processes and products in the areas of biomass conversion and plastics upcycling.