Lee R. Lynd, an international expert on utilization of plant biomass for the production of energy, will give the Charter Lecture March 29 at 3 p.m. in the Chapel. He will address “The Sustainable Resource Transition: Systemic Change and Enabling the Improbable.” A reception in Demosthenian Hall will follow the lecture.
“People often speak about making a difference and changing the world, but Lee Lynd is actually doing it,” said Janet Westpheling, professor of genetics and a member of the Charter Lecture Committee at UGA.
Lynd is the Paul and Joan Queneau Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth College, co-founder of Mascoma Corp., initiator of the Global Sustainable Bioenergy Project, and has been featured in Wired, Forbes, “Nova” and the Nobel Conference.
Lynd has been a frequent speaker on the strategic and technical aspects of plant biomass as a sustainable energy source. He is the coordinator of the Global Sustainable Bioenergy Project and the lead for biomass deconstruction and conversion at the U.S. Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Lynd’s broad contributions span the fields of science, technology and public policy and include leading research on microbial cellulose utilization. He has led an active research group addressing these issues during the last quarter century, authoring more than 120 publications.
Lynd is a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the inaugural recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Sustainability Prize for Inventions and Innovations that Enhance Economic Opportunity and Community Well-Being While Protecting and Restoring the Natural Environment, the 2005 winner of the Charles D. Scott Award, a two-time recipient of the Charles A. Lindbergh Award and a Presidential Young Investigator.