Peter Halley

Guest Editor for this issue of MRS Bulletin

Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; tel. 61-7-3346-3881; and email [email protected].

Halley is a professor of chemical engineering and is a group leader in the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at The University of Queensland (UQ), Brisbane, Australia. He has worked at SRI International (Menlo Park, CA), Sola Optical Research Centre (Adelaide), Moldflow (Melbourne), and when at UQ, in three large cooperative research centers (CRCs) with industry. He was heavily involved in the spinoff of Plantic Technologies from CRC food packaging and was involved with the IP transfer for CRC Sugar (2008) and CRC Polymers (2009). Halley has published more than 240 articles and 8 patents. He leads a current research group of 40 academics, researchers, and industry partners focusing on the rheology, processing, and product design of biopolymers, nanostructured polymers, and high value engineering polymers. Halley is a fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and a fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI). He also is on the editorial board of the Journal of Polymer Science and Starch.

John R. Dorgan

Guest Editor for this issue of MRS Bulletin

Chemical Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA; and email [email protected].

Dorgan is a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, where he also serves as the site director of the Colorado Center for Biofuels and Biorefining (C2B2). He received his BS degree in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his PhD degree in chemical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. While studying at Berkeley, he held a Hertz Foundation fellowship. Subsequently, he completed postdoctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. Dorgan has worked at Analog Devices, GE Plastics, and the Dow Chemical Company. He began his academic career at the Colorado School of Mines in 1993 and received the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award in 1995. His research focuses on developing new bioplastics and bioplastic nanocomposites, which are based on renewable resources as well as on new process technologies for biorefining. He has published more than 65 peer-reviewed journal articles. In 2005, Dorgan was elected president of the Bioenvironmental Polymer Society. In 2006, he helped lead a successful effort to organize C2B2, an industry-sponsored research center involving faculty and staff from the Colorado School of Mines, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, and the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Luc Avérous

LIPHT-ECPM, Université de Strasbourg, 25 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France; tel. 33-0-368-852-784; and email [email protected].

Avérous is co-director of the Laboratoire d’Ingénierie des Polymères pour les Hautes Technologies (LiPHT) at the University of Strasbourg, France. He became a full professor at Ecole Européen de Chimie (ECPM) in 2003. During the past 15 years, his major research projects have dealt with biobased and/or biodegradable polymers for environmental and biomedical applications. He is regularly invited to organize symposia and conferences and gives plenary or keynote lectures overseas. Avérous has published hundreds of scientific communications, such as articles in international journals, books chapters, patents, and proceeding papers. He also has co-edited three books.

Gregory M. Glenn

Bioproduct Chemistry and Engineering Research Unit at the Western Regional Research Center in Albany, CA, 94706, USA; tel. 510-559-5677; and email [email protected].

Glenn has worked with the Agricultural Research Service since 1987, after earning his PhD degree from Washington State University. Glenn’s research has focused on starch utilization and bioproduct development, including starch-based food containers, building materials, and biodegradable control-release devices. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles, including 15 patents that have been issued or are pending.

Syed H. Imam

Bioproduct Chemistry and Engineering Research unit at the United States Department of Agriculture, Western Regional Research Center in Albany, CA 94706, USA; and email [email protected].

Imam is a senior research chemist in the Bioproduct Chemistry and Engineering Research unit at the United States Department of Agriculture—Agricultural Research Service—Western Regional Research Center in Albany, CA, where he conducts research to enhance the utilization of agriculturally derived polymers for non-food applications. He has more than 25 years of research experience and is internationally recognized for his accomplishments and contributions in the field. Imam has authored and co-authored more than 130 publications, has several patents to his credit, and has edited three books.

Ramani Narayan

Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA; tel. 517-432-0775; and email [email protected].

Narayan is a university distinguished professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Michigan State University (MSU). He also serves as a U.S. technical expert, chairman, and convener in several ISO standards committees, and chair of the ASTM committee on biobased products and environmentally degradable plastics (D20.96). He has 130 refereed publications, 25 patents, and has been a successful entrepreneur with commercialized technologies in the bioplastics space. Narayan has won many awards, including the MSU University Distinguished Professor award in 2007. He also has received the Governor’s Award for commercialization excellence, the University Distinguished Faculty Award, the Withrow Distinguished Scholar award, the Fulbright Distinguished Lectureship Chair at University of Lisbon, Portugal, the ASTM International Award of merit, and was named an ASTM Fellow.

William J. Orts

Bioproduct Chemistry and Engineering, USDA-ARS Western Regional Research Center, Albany, CA 94710, USA; and email [email protected].

Orts is a research lead for a team at the United States Department of Agriculture that provides biorefinery strategies relevant to the western United States. He completed graduate research at the University of Toronto related to biopolymers and biorefinery development. Orts also has a continuing interest in development of nanostructured materials, nanocomposites, and biosensors. He has contributed to more than 150 publications in the field of biopolymers.

Eric Pollet

LIPHT-ECPM, Université de Strasbourg, 25 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France; tel. 33-0-368-852-786; and email [email protected].

Pollet has been an associate professor in the Laboratory of Engineering Polymers for High Technologies (LIPHT) at the University of Strasbourg, France, since 2004. He obtained his PhD degree in chemical engineering from the University of Lyon, France, in 2001. His main research activities deal with biobased and biodegradable polymers, such as polysaccharides or biopolyesters and the elaboration of related (nano)composites. He also teaches polymer science at the University of Strasbourg. Pollet has published more than 30 articles in international journals and several book chapters on this topic.

Rowan Truss

School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, and School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia; tel. 61-7-33653729; and email [email protected].

Truss is an associate professor at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. He earned his undergraduate and PhD degrees at UQ and returned to an academic position at the university in 1990 after postdoctoral research at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Leeds, UK, and nine years in industry with ICI Australia. His research interests are in the mechanical properties of polymers and their relationship to polymer structure and processing. In recent years, Truss has worked extensively with natural polymers such as starch and recently with natural fibers for composites.