Athens, Ga. – Lee Lynd of Dartmouth College, known worldwide for his research on the use of microbes to utilize biomass to produce biofuels, will deliver the third annual University of Georgia Lars G. Ljungdahl Lecture on Nov. 4 at 3:30 p.m. in room C127 of the Life Science Building on campus.
The event is open free to the public. The lecture is named in honor of a long-time and much-honored UGA faculty member, Lars G. Ljungdahl.
Lynd is a professor of engineering and an adjunct professor of biology and earth
science at Dartmouth College; professor of microbiology at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; and director and chief scientific officer of Mascoma Corporation, a biomass energy company he co-founded. He has been a member of the Dartmouth faculty since 1987.
Lynd holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Bates College, a master’s degree in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin and master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering from Dartmouth College. His research contributions span science, technology and policy and include work on fundamental and biotechnological aspects of microbial cellulose utilization.
He is the author of more than 100 technical papers as well as reviews and book chapters. He also has been awarded six patents. A frequently invited presenter on technical and strategic aspects of biomass energy, Lynd has testified three times before the U.S. Senate, and has been featured in magazines, such as Wired and Forbes, on the PBS program “Nova,” and at the Nobel Conference.
Lars Ljungdahl and his late wife, Despy Karlas, who was a professor of piano and noted performer for decades with what is now the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at UGA, provided funding for the lecture series.
Ljungdahl came to UGA in 1967 and immediately began building a reputation as an outstanding research scientist and teacher. As Georgia Power Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology, he received numerous honors, including fellowships in the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and foreign membership in the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He worked with the Georgia Research Alliance for 10 years and at the same time served as a member of the State of Georgia Governor’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology from 1992-96.
Ljungdahl was editor-in-chief for the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology from 1986-95 and director of the Georgia Biotechnology Center from 1994-2001. He also served as director of the Center for Biological Resource Recovery before his retirement.
After earning a diploma from Stockholm City Technical School, he began work full time at the Karolinska Institute as a technician and simultaneously pursued studies toward a chemical engineering degree, which he obtained from Stockholm Technical Institute in 1945.
For more information about the UGA department of biochemistry and molecular biology, see http://www.bmb.uga.edu/home/index.php.
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