Sunday, July 22, 2007

Positive Energy

Recently there has been a lot of excitement in on the UW-Madison campus - and for good reason. Initial funding ($125 M) from the Department of Energy has been awarded to create the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. (This is the largest formal grant in the history of the university.) The GLBRC will be based at UW-Madison but will involve extensive collaboration with academic, industrial, and governmental research entities throughout the region (and beyond) - all for the purpose of developing technologies for cellulosic biofuel production. As a former plant cell wall researcher, this is tremendously exciting. My former graduate advisor, Ken Keegstra, is leading the collaboration between Michigan State University and UW-Madison.

Press releases and media coverage:
UW-Madison press center kit
Department of Energy press release
Wisconsin Technology Network coverage
Coverage in local newspaper (The State Journal)