Dominic Sauvageau – Associate Professor, Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta

Prof. Dominic Sauvageau (BEng MEng, PhD – Chemical Engineering, McGill University; P.Eng.) joined the University of Alberta in January 2011. His research focuses on different aspects of Bioengineering from bioproduction of biofuels, biomaterials and specialty chemicals in microbial systems to the development of bacteriophage-based technologies. He is heavily involved in the development of advanced fermentation technologies, such as self-cycling fermentation, for the improvement of productivity in microbial systems. His research involves the bioconversion of sugar feedstocks (by bacteria and yeast) and of methane (by methanotrophic bacteria) to value-added products (alcohols, biojet fuel, biopolymers). His work combines principles from chemical and process engineering with techniques from molecular biology, genetic engineering and synthetic biology.

He is the recipient of an Early Career Researcher and a Discovery Grant Accelerator Supplement Awards from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). He received the Provost’s Award for Early Achievement of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2015) and the Faculty of Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award (2014) at the University of Alberta. He was the supervisor and co-supervisor of four awarded teams of students representing the UofA at the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) synthetic biology competition (2012, 2013, 2017, 2018).

Marty Luckert – Professor, Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta

Marty Luckert is a professor in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology at the University of Alberta. He specializes in forest and natural resource, policy and economics. He has worked domestically and abroad on natural resource management and development issues. His expertise includes forest tenure policy, biofuels, land use change, and livelihoods in developing countries. Marty has served on numerous forest and natural resource policy committees across Canada and internationally.

https://www.ualberta.ca/resource-economics-environmental-sociology

Bob Koch – Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta

Dr. C.R. (Bob) Koch is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta, Edmonton Alberta (since 2001). In 2016 he is a visiting professor at the Institute for Measurement and Control at the Technical University of Berlin, Berlin Germany. In 2007, he was a visiting professor at the Institute of Systems Theory at the University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. Before joining the University of Alberta, Dr. Koch worked for 10 years in the automotive industry. From 1991 to 1992 and from 1994 to 2001 he worked at Daimler-Benz – DaimlerChrysler in Stuttgart Germany in advanced internal combustion engines. During 1992 to 1994 he worked for General Motors in the Detroit area on automotive powertrain control. From this work he holds 7 US patents and 5 German patents. C.R. Koch received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada in 1985, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, in 1986 and 1991, respectively. Improving fluid mechanical and combustion systems using closed loop control methods is the general focus of his research. His research interests include combustion engines, biofuels, advanced powertrains and control of both reacting and non-reacting fluid. He is an assistant editor for the Journal Mechatronics and has been on the technical committee for a variety of conferences and reviews. He is also active providing peer review for journal papers, grant applications and conferences. He has chaired sessions in conferences and been on the program committee for conferences.

https://sites.ualberta.ca/~ckoch/

Stan Blade – Dean, Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta

Dr. Blade is Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences (ALES) at the University of Alberta. The Faculty is made up of 500+ faculty and staff, 1600 undergraduates and 550 graduate students. ALES is focused on teaching, research and community service in its departments and schools: Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Sciences, Renewable Resources, Human Ecology, Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology as well as the University of Alberta Botanic Garden and the Alberta School of Forest Science and Management. The Faculty has an annual budget of $85m, with approximately $45m of that composed of external research support. The Faculty has a large research infrastructure which includes 25,000 acres of farm and ranchland in key ecologies across Alberta. Dr. Blade is a full professor in the Faculty’s Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Science.

Dr. Blade was born in Alberta, Canada where he was raised on a dairy and grain farm. He attended the University of Alberta for his first degree (B.Sc.) in genetics. He obtained his M.Sc. (Crop Science) from the University of Saskatchewan for a breeding/physiology study on wheat. Dr. Blade’s doctorate was awarded by McGill University (Montreal, Canada) for work done at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture on a Canadian International Development Agency Ph.D. Scholarship. The thesis topic was a plant breeding/farming systems approach to improving an indigenous grain legume (Vigna unguiculata L.) for use within the complex cereal-legume cropping systems of the West African savanna.

Dr. Blade is a 2012 graduate of the Wharton Business School’s Executive Development Program (University of Pennsylvania). In 2012 Dr. Blade was named by Alberta Venture as one of “Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People”.

Dr. Stan Blade was the founding Chief Executive Officer (2008-2014) of the Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions Corporation (AI Bio). Dr. Blade previously served as the Deputy Director General (Research) for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). IITA is a world-class research organization that is part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (www.cgiar.org). Dr. Blade was a member of the Alliance Deputy Executive of the CGIAR. IITA is based in Ibadan, Nigeria, and has additional research stations in eastern and northern Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. IITA has 150 internationally-recruited research and technology transfer experts based in fifteen countries within Africa.

Dr. Blade has published 90+ research articles, ten book chapters, 170+ conference abstracts and has edited four books. He has been the winner of several awards from the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America. Dr. Blade is a member of several professional societies and international committees, and has served on the editorial boards of several international journals. Dr. Blade has worked and traveled in 90+ countries.

He currently serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Trustees of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, a Nairobi-based agency supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Blade also serves as a Trustee of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and as a board member for Edmonton Global (regional economic development agency), the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute and the Alberta Cancer Foundation.

https://www.ualberta.ca/agriculture-life-environment-sciences/about-us/deans-message

David Bressler – Scientific Director, Biomass Energy Network

David Bressler earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Cell Biotechnology from the University of Alberta. Dr. Bressler is appointed with the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences where he is a Professor.

Dr. Bressler’s general area of research is the industrial application of thermal, chemical, and biological processes for catalytic conversion of conventional agricultural products to platform chemicals, fuels, and value-added commodities. The development and optimization of novel mechanisms and biochemical pathways are of particular interest. As the Scientific Director of the Biomass Energy Network, as well as the Technology Founder behind Forge Hydrocarbons, Dr. Bressler is a strong advocate for taking an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to developing novel, commercializable technologies that will cultivate Alberta’s bioindustrial sector.

https://bresslerlab.ualberta.ca/

http://www.forgehc.com/