CABBI Colloquia
Once a month, CABBI is organizing a colloquium for all of its researchers. At every colloquium, one grad student, postdoc, or PI will give a 20-minute presentation on his or her CABBI research. The presenter finishes the presentation with discussion questions to the audience in order to identify new integration opportunities within a theme, across CABBI themes, and/or with other U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs). Each colloquium will finish with a networking event, including refreshments.
In the audience are CABBI researchers from all three themes. Scientists from the partner institutions are encouraged to attend and/or present through Zoom. The presenters will rotate among the themes and partner institutions.
2021 Colloquia info coming soon!

Zia Fatma
Conversion Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Huimin Zhao), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Building a Comprehensive Set of Genetic Toolkit for Metabolic Engineering of Issatchenkia orientalis”
Date: Feb. 15, 2021
COLLOQUIA FROM 2020
Kelsie Ferin
Sustainability Theme
Ph.D. Candidate (Advisor Andy VanLoocke), Iowa State University
Title of talk: “Field-Scale Analysis of Land Use and Climate Change Effects on Water Quality in the Raccoon River Basin”
Date: Dec. 14, 2020
Sebastian Varela
Feedstock Production Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Andrew Leakey), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Understanding Growth Dynamics and Yield of Biomass Sorghum Using High-Resolution UAV Imagery Time Series”
Date: Nov. 16, 2020
Saurabh Sinha
Conversion Theme
Co-Investigator, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Bioenergy 101: Machine Learning”
&
Matthew Waugh
Conversion Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Yi Lu), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Novel Biocatalysts by Design: Designing Artificial Metalloenzymes for Selective Functionalization and Catalytic Upgrading of Unsaturated Fatty Acids”
Date: Oct. 12, 2020
Mark Burnham
Sustainability Theme
Postdoc (Advisors Wendy Yang and Evan DeLucia), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “How Bioenergy Sorghum Influences Agroecosystem Nitrogen Cycling: Implications for Sustainability”
Date: Sept. 14, 2020
Ayman Eid
Feedstock Production Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Fredy Altpeter), University of Florida
Title of talk: “Towards Oilcane: Improving Genome Editing Tools for Precision Editing of Lipogenic and Agronomic Factors”
Date: Aug. 17, 2020
Pan Yang
Sustainability Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Ximing Cai), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Simulation of Cellulosic Biofuel Expansion through an Agent-Based Model: Investigation of Multiple Policies”
Additional discussion: “CABBI’s Data and Software Knowledge Base and Data Management Updates” by CABBI Data Manager Leslie Stoecker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: June 1, 2020
Meera Gupta
Conversion Theme
Ph.D. Candidate (Advisor Martin Wühr), Princeton University
Title of talk: “Quantitative Mass Spectrometry for Comparative Analysis of Yeast Proteomes”
Date: May 4, 2020
Madara Hetti Arachchilage
Feedstock Production Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Amy Marshall-Colón), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Identification of Sorghum Stem-Preferred Genes and their Cis-Regulatory Elements through de-novo Promoter Analysis”
Date: April 6, 2020
Caitlin Moore
Sustainability Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Carl Bernacchi), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “The CABBI Flux Tower Network“
Date: March 9, 2020
Qiang Yan
Conversion Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Brian Pfleger), University of Wisconsin at Madison
Title of talk: “Characterization of Key Enzymes for Oleochemical Synthesis“
Date: Jan. 27, 2020
COLLOQUIA FROM 2019
Leslie Stoecker
CABBI Research Data Coordinator
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “CABBI Data Management: Tools, Procedures, and Guidance“
Date: Dec. 2, 2019
Hans Müller Paul
Feedstock Production Theme
Ph.D. Candidate (Advisor: Matthew Hudson), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “CROPSR: An Automated Platform for Complex Genome-Wide CRISPR gRNA Design and Validation“
Date: Nov. 11, 2019
Stephan Lane
Conversion Theme
Biofoundry Manager, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Illinois Biological Foundry for Advanced Biomanufacturing (iBioFAB)“
Date: Oct. 7, 2019
Rui Shi
Sustainability Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Jeremy Guest), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Integrating Life Cycle Assessment and Process Design for Prioritization of Biofuels and Bioproducts Production“
Date: Sept. 9, 2019
Nicholas LaBonte
Feedstock Production Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Erik Sacks), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Genomics-Assisted Improvement of Miscanthus and Saccharum as Bioenergy Feedstocks“
Date: Aug. 5, 2019
Nurzhan Kuanyshev
Conversion Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Yong-Su Jin), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Discover Sugar Transporters Capable of Transporting Glucose and Xylose Simultaneously”
Date: July 8, 2019
Jeff Kent
Sustainability Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Tara Hudiburg), University of Idaho
Title of talk: “Modeling Energy Sorghum Emissions for the Rainfed United States”
Date: May 13, 2019
Sang Yeol Kim
Feedstock Production Theme
Research Scientist (Advisor Don Ort), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Posttranslational Modification of Rubisco activase to Govern Photosynthesis and Growth”
Date: April 1, 2019
Ming-Hsun Cheng
Conversion Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Vijay Singh), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Sugar Production from Bioenergy Sorghum by Pilot-Scale Continuous Hydrothermal Pretreatment”
Date: March 11, 2019
COLLOQUIA FROM 2018
Adam Von Haden
Sustainability Theme
Postdoc (Advisors Evan H. DeLucia and Wendy Yang), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Improving our Mechanistic Understanding of Plant and Soil Processes to Refine Predictions of Ecosystem Carbon Cycling in Biomass-Based Cropping Systems”
Date: Dec. 3, 2018
Shuai Li
Feedstock Production Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Lisa Ainsworth), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Testing Oxidative Stress Tolerance in C4 Bioenergy Crops”
Date: Nov. 12, 2018
Jing-Jing Liu
Conversion Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Christopher Rao), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “System Analysis of Lipomyces starkeyi Uncovered New Gene Targets for Metabolic Engineering”
Date: Oct. 15, 2018
Chongya Jiang
Sustainability Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Kaiyu Guan), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title of talk: “Mapping marginal lands at field scale for the Midwestern United States”
Date: Sept.17, 2018
Hae Jin Kim
Feedstock Production Theme
Postdoc (Advisor Ed Cahoon), University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Title of talk: “Synthetic Design of Plant Oil Metabolism”
Date: Aug.13, 2018