U.S Department of Energy’s Joint Bioenergy Institute Pays a Visit to Maine

December saw 2018 end on a high note, with a visit from two leaders of the Joint Bioenergy Institute. JBEI is a U.S Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Research Center made up of five U.S national laboratories and six U.S academic research institutions. Their annual funding of $25 million is dedicated to research and development of advanced biofuels and other biobased products. JBEI leaders, Jay Keasling and Blake Simmons traveled from their Emeryville, California office to Orono, Maine in December for a two-day series of tours and private workshops hosted by the University of Maine.

Beside heading JBEI as CEO, Jay is the Senior Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is also a Professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Bioengineering departments at Berkley, and is a co-founder of Amyris, a biobased technology company which manufactures products ranging from anti-malarial medicines to cosmetics sold at Sephora.

Visiting with Jay was Blake Simmons, JBEI’s Chief Science and Technology Officer and Vice President of the Deconstruction Division (biomass deconstruction that is). Blake also serves as the Director of the Biological Systems and Engineering Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of California Berkley, and at the University of Queensland.

Their short visit was packed with tours of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, the Process Development Center, and the Technology Research Center, as well as workshops with researchers at the University of Maine. Jay and Blake discussed with university researchers the potential to collaborate in research areas such as in biochemical and advanced materials, high performance computing and machine learning, biofuels, and biomass deconstruction and utilization. Other stakeholder groups within Maine’s forest bioproducts sector participated in these meetings, including representatives from FOR/Maine, and congressional staffers from Senator Collins’ and Senator King’s offices.

These productive meetings resulted in realized synergies and planned collaboration between JBEI, and research and stakeholder groups in Maine. In March, Maine will return the favor by sending several individuals to Emeryville to see the JBEI headquarters and other facilities.