Research Focus
Dr. Shanks is an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and the Mike & Jean Steffenson Chair at Iowa State University in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
His group focuses on the chemical conversion of biomass-derived molecules to bioproducts and biofuels using heterogeneous catalysis. He is affiliated with the Biofuels and Bioproducts Division (BBD) of JBEI.
Projects
- Chemical conversion of fermentation products to diversified biofuels and bioproducts.
Featured Media
Featured Publications
Complete list from Google Scholar
- “Bioprivileged Molecules: Creating Value from Biomass”, Green Chem. (2017)
- “A new selective route towards benzoic acid and derivatives from biomass-derived coumalic acid”, Green Chem. (2017)
- “cis,cis-Muconic acid isomerization and catalytic conversion to biobased cyclic-C6-1,4-diacid monomers”, Green Chem. (2017)
- “The formation of p-toluic acid from coumalic acid: A reaction network analysis”, Green Chem. (2017)
- “Coupling chemical and biological catalysis: A flexible paradigm for producing biobased chemicals”, Opin. Biotechnol. (2016)
- “Directing polyol dehydration via modification of acid catalysts with metals”, Catal. (2016)
- “Kinetics of Glucose Dehydration Catalyzed by Homogeneous Lewis Acidic Metal Salts in Water”, Catal. A: Gen. (2015)
- “Bridging the chemical and biological catalysis gap: challenges and outlooks for producing sustainable chemicals”, ACS Catal. (2014)