CABBI Colloquia

Once a month, CABBI organizes a colloquium for all of its researchers. 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). The presenters rotates among the themes and partner institutions.


Shraddha Maitra

Conversion Theme

Postdoc (PI: Vijay Singh), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Bioprocessing Transgenic CABBI Crops for Sustainable Co-Production of Vegetative Lipids and Cellulosic Sugars”

Date: June 17, 2024

Note: The June Colloquium also included a “Bioenergy 101.” Find it and previous lessons on the Bioenergy 101 page.

Elena Blanc-Betes

Sustainability Theme

Research Scientist (PI: Evan DeLucia), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Climate vs. Energy Security: Quantifying the Trade-offs of BECCS Deployment and Overcoming Opportunity Costs on Set-Aside Land”

Date: May 20, 2024

Daniel Tejeda Lunn

Feedstock Production Theme

Research Scientist (PI: Andrew Leakey), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Optimizing Stomata by Making Fewer Mouths and Synchronizing Breathing”

Date: April 29, 2024

Kaiyu Guan

Sustainability Theme

PI, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “The Art of the Possible — How Can Advanced Modeling and Sensing Advance Biofuel Crop Research?”

Date: Feb. 19, 2024

Bethany Blakely

Sustainability Theme

Postdoc (PI: Carl Bernacchi), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Eddy Covariance: The ‘Gold Standard’ for Ecosystem Carbon Flux Measurement”

Date: Oct. 23, 2023


Hyun Gi Koh

Conversion Theme

Postdoc (PIs: Yong-Su Jin, Chris Rao), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Engineering Rhodosporidium toruloides for Enhanced Xylose Utilization”

Date: Sept. 18, 2023


Zhihai Zhang

Feedstock Production Theme

Postdoc (PI: Matthew Hudson), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Major Impacts of Widespread Structural Variation on Sorghum”

Date: Aug. 28, 2023


Jared Flater

Sustainability Theme

Postdoc (PIs: Andy VanLoocke, Marshall McDaniel), Iowa State University

Title of talk: “Nitrogen and Greenhouse Gases: Challenges and Opportunities for SABR”

Date: July 17, 2023


Matthew Jacobson

Conversion Theme

Ph.D. Candidate (PI: David Flaherty), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Investigating the Mechanism of Methyl Lactate Dehydration on Alkali-Substituted Faujasite Catalysts”

Date: May 15, 2023


Nandan Rai

Feedstock Production Theme

Postdoc (PI: Steve Moose), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Leveraging Plant Developmental Programs to Improve Desired Agronomic Traits in Bioenergy Grasses”

Date: April 24, 2023


Zoe Pagliaro

Sustainability Theme

Ph.D. Candidate (PI: Eddie Brzostek), West Virginia University

Title of talk: “Unlocking Deep Soils: Linking Depth Gradients in Roots, Microbial Activity, and Soil Carbon”

Date: March 6, 2023


Shuaizhen (Jane) Zhou

Conversion Theme

Postdoc (PI: Jonathan Sweedler), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Mass Spectrometry Based High-Throughput Quantification of Bioproducts in Liquid Culture”

Date: Feb. 13, 2023


Yu Wang

Feedstock Production Theme

Postdoc (PI: Stephen Long), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Dynamic Photosynthesis of Sorghum and Sugarcane”

Date: Jan. 30, 2023

Melannie Hartman

Sustainability Theme

Research Scientist (PI: William Parton), Colorado State University

Title of talk: “Ecosystem Services Provided by Cover Crops in Rotation with Sorghum: Combining Measurements and Modeling”

Date: Oct. 31, 2022


Yihui Shen

Conversion Theme

Postdoc (PI: Joshua Rabinowitz), Princeton University

Title of talk: “Rigidity and Flexibility of Yeast Metabolism”

Date: Sept. 19, 2022


Therese Mitros

Feedstock Production Theme

Research Scientist (PI: Daniel Rokhsar), University of California at Berkeley

Title of talk: “Miscanthus: Genetics and Genomics”

Date: Aug. 29, 2022


Katerina Estera-Molina

Sustainability Theme

Research Scientist (PI: Jennifer Pett-Ridge), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Title of talk: “Stable Isotope Tracing of Photosynthetic Carbon Belowground through Field Labeling of a California Annual Grassland”

Date: July 18, 2022


Guangde Jiang

Conversion Theme

Postdoc (PI: Huimin Zhao), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Exploring New-to-Nature Reactivities in Native Enzymes by Photobiocatalysis”

Date: May 23, 2022


Kiyoul Park

Feedstock Production Theme

Postdoc (PI: Edgar Cahoon), University of Nebraska at Lincoln

Title of talk: “Metabolic Engineering of Vegetative Oils in Sorghum”

Date: April 25, 2022


Chunhwa Jang

Sustainability Theme

Postdoc (PI: D.K. Lee), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “How N Fertility Influences Sustainable Bioenergy Feedstock Production on Marginal Land”

Date: March 28, 2022

William Woodruff

Conversion Theme

Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Ph.D. Candidate (Advisor Christopher Rao), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Scale-Up of Lipid Production from Biomass in Rhodosporidium toruloides“

Date: Dec. 13, 2021


Teresa Clark

Feedstock Production Theme

Postdoc (Advisor Jörg Schwender), Brookhaven National Laboratory

Title of talk: “Triacylglycerol (TAG) Accumulation in Sugarcane — Metabolic and Isotope Tracer Studies”

Date: Nov. 8, 2021


Niuniu Ji

Sustainability Theme

Postdoc (Advisor Angela Kent), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Host Genetic Variation Influences Microbial Assembly and Interaction from Miscanthus Rhizosphere to Endophytic Compartment”

Date: Oct. 25, 2021


Hoang Dinh

Conversion Theme

Chemical Engineering Ph.D. Candidate (Advisor Costas Maranas), Penn State University

Title of talk: “Accelerating Non-Model Yeast Engineering with Metabolic Models”

Date: Sept. 13, 2021


Kate Glanville

Sustainability Theme

Postdoc (Advisor Adina Howe), Iowa State University

Title of talk: “Consequences of Fertilization and Cropping System on Soil Priming and Nitrifiers”

Date: Aug. 16, 2021


Xueyi Xue

Feedstock Production Theme

Postdoc (Advisor Liqing Chen), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Optimize Sugar Partitioning to Enhance Sugar-Rich Traits in Stem and Delay Senescence by Altering the Source-Sink Relationship in Sorghum”

Date: July 19, 2021


Karolina Michalska and Darren Sherrell

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)

Title of talk: “Opportunities for Biological and Environmental Research at Advanced Photon Source”

Date: May 3, 2021


Bijay Sharma

Sustainability Theme

Postdoc (Advisor Madhu Khanna), University of Illinois Urbana-Campaign

Title of talk: “Responsiveness of Miscanthus and Switchgrass Yields to Stand Age and Nitrogen Fertilization: A Meta-Regression Analysis”

and

Mary Lipton and Scott Lea

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)

Title of talk: “Collaborating on Bioenergy Research with the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory”

Date: April 5, 2021


Yingqi Cai

Feedstock Production Theme

Postdoc (Advisor John Shanklin), Brookhaven National Laboratory

Title of talk: “Optimizing Plant Growth and Storage Lipid Accumulation in Vegetative Tissues”

Date: March 8, 2021


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

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


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

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

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


Tong Si

Conversion Theme

Postdoc (Advisors Jonathan Sweedler, Huimin Zhao), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title of talk: “Automated Biomanufacturing of Microbial Libraries for Promoting Sustainability”

Date: June 4, 2018