Leadership

Board of Directors

Corinne Drennan

PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY

Corinne Drennan is responsible for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's (PNNL's) research portfolio on biofuels, products, and energy. This portfolio includes the sustainable utilization of marine, terrestrial, and waste biomass for fuels and chemicals via thermal, biological, and catalytic conversion. It also includes GIS-based resource availability analysis, techno-economic analysis (TEA)/life-cycle assessment, algal growth parameterization and modeling, and sustainability analysis (GCAM). Corinne received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California (UC) Riverside, with a concentration in heterogeneous catalysis. Her M.S. in Chemical and Environmental Engineering is also from UC Riverside, and she is currently pursuing an M.B.A. from Washington State University. Prior to her current assignment, Corinne's research focus was on process development and TEA for gasification systems (coal and biomass), fast pyrolysis and bio-oil upgrading, municipal solid waste to liquid fuels, and CO₂ capture systems.

Rick Elander

NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY

Rick Elander has more than 25 years of R&D and project management experience in the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals. He currently manages a broad portfolio of R&D projects that comprise the biomass biochemical conversion platform within the National Bioenergy Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. These projects include experimental and computational R&D for biomass deconstruction and solubilization; microbial and catalytic upgrading of sugars and lignin; process separations and product recovery; process integration and scale-up; and techno-economic and life-cycle analysis. He has direct experience in designing, implementing, and utilizing biomass pretreatment, biomass slurry solid-liquid separation, enzymatic hydrolysis, and biological upgrading unit operations at both the bench scale and pilot scale. He has successfully managed complex R&D projects involving numerous academic and industrial subcontractors, along with several high-visibility and high-impact multi-partner industrial collaborations with domestic and international partners.

Josh Schaidle

NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY

Josh Schaidle is the manager for the biomass thermochemical conversion platform within the National Bioenergy Center at NREL in Golden, Colorado. Research within this platform ranges from atomistic-scale modeling of catalytic surfaces and reactor flow dynamics to pilot-scale validation of biomass-to-fuels processes coupled with techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment. Josh received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California-Santa Barbara in 2006 and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2011, with a concentration in environmental sustainability. He has worked extensively on both gasification and pyrolysis pathways, leveraging his expertise in catalyst design and development with special emphasis on combining experimental and computational efforts.