Blake Simmons is the manager of the Energy Systems Department of the Sandia National Laboratory. A chemical engineer by training, his expertise includes biofuel cells, nanophotonic materials, microfluidics, nanofluidics, desalination, biomineralization and enzyme engineering. Most recently, he has been studying enzymes isolated from extremophile organisms that could be applied to the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuel material.
Rajat Sapra is a researcher with the Biosystems Research Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore. His efforts involve a parallel approach that includes both numerical modeling to determine preferred mutant gene sequences, followed by site-directed mutagenesis of the native enzyme. A high-throughput enzyme screening strategy is used for rapid, reliable identification of desired enzymatic characteristics.
Brad Holmes is a researcher with the Biosystems Research Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore. His work at JBEI will be leading the effort into the discovery of novel pretreatments and process engineering.
Seema Singh is a senior member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratory. She is a biophysicist and a surface scientist with expertise in probe (AFM, STM), optical (confocal, fluorescence, fluorescence lifetime imaging, FRET, FRAP, biophotonics), and electron (SEM, TEM, ESEM) microscopic techniques. As part of deconstruction-pretreatment team, she will use her expertise in spectroscopy (Raman, FTIR, NIR etc.) and combined optical-AFM microscopy in conjunction with EM to investigate and understand the biomass pre-treatment processes/mechanisms in-situ for comparing different pretreatment processes towards efficiently converting lignocellulose into fermentable sugars.
Terry Hazen is a senior staff scientist with Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division where he heads the Ecology Department and Center for Environmental Biotechnology, and co-directs the Virtual Institute for Microbial Stress and Survival. He is also a DOE Basic Energy Research Distinguished Scientist at Berkeley Lab. For JBEI, he is leading the study of microbial ecology as it relates to bioenergy.
