Principal Investigator: Andrew D Robertson Institution: Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology
This award will provide partial support for travel of US participants to participate in Keystone Symposia meeting on Biofuels, to be held in Singapore, March 1-6, 2011.
Intellectual Merit
The overarching goal of the Keystone Symposia meeting on Biofuels is to make a meaningful contribution to reducing dependence on fossil feedstocks by creating secure and sustainable sources for fuel, power, and products. The 2011 Keystone biofuels symposium will serve as a venue to highlight advances in biofuels research from three major biomass feedstocks: lignocellulosic plant material, algae, and alternative feedstocks such as Jatropha. This symposium will bring together plant and algae biologists engaged in biofuels research from academia, industry and government. The long term goal is to facilitate collaborations intended to accelerate the accumulation of basic knowledge of photosynthetic organisms, both algae and plants, and to accelerate the deployment of new and expanded bioenergy feedstocks.
Broader Impacts
This symposium will also provide educational benefits. Specifically, symposium activities are designed to acquaint trainees and investigators new to the field of bioenergy crop research with the state-of-the-art developments in this area through oral presentations and poster sessions, and to provide these new investigators with opportunities for feedback, networking and mentorship from senior colleagues.
Keystone Symposia’s meeting on "Biofuels" aimed to make a meaningful contribution to reducing dependence on fossil feedstocks by addressing the most promising avenues for bioenergy production. More specifically, the multidisciplinary nature of this meeting allowed participants to cover three major research areas in biofuels: biofuels derived from lignocellulosic plant material, algae and alternative feedstocks. The inclusion of all three topics made this a unique meeting as, normally, only one of these topics is covered in scientific meetings on biofuels. World leaders reviewed the state of the art in these three topic areas. The international nature of the conference, as well as the Southeast Asian venue, were intended to bring new people into the field. A workshop further leveraged participation by China- and India based scientists at this meeting by focusing on the regional implementation of biofuel production, examining the potential of biomass production in Southeast Asia. This 4-day meeting was designed to provide a forum for scientists working in different areas of biofuels research to present results and to interact with other experts in the field. Plenary and short talks, a poster session and unstructured informal discussions were all used to address key issues in this area. The long-term objectives of this meeting and resulting collaborations were: - Improved economic and environmental sustainability of biofuels production; - Increased preparedness for the integration of biofuels into existing energy infrastructure; - Increased pace for research and development of biofuels production to catch up with existing and projected demand; - Development of new biomass feedstocks; - Increased capabilities in CO2 sequestration for biofuel crops; - Increased collaboration between plant and algae biologists in order to significantly advance biofuels research in both areas; - Increased interaction between biofuel industry and academic researchers; - Increased global participation in biofuels research and industry; and - Introduction and training of students and junior researchers for industry career opportunities to meet growing workforce demands. There were 122 total attendees at the meeting. Attendees were diverse with regard to gender, ethnicity, stage of career, and institutional affiliation. More specifically, 25% of the meeting participants were female researchers. The meeting was also highly international, drawing 49% non-US attendees. Approximately 24% of attendees were students and postdoctoral fellows. The meeting provided ample opportunity for training and professional development. Plenary sessions included short talks drawn from submitted abstracts and many, if not most, of the presenters were students, postdoctoral trainees and newer investigators. Trainees and newer investigators were exposed to dozens of high-quality oral presentations by more senior investigators, who served as models for high-quality research and communication skills. A poster session provided a venue for trainees and newer investigators to share their research and to discuss this research with more experienced investigators. Finally, the unstructured portions of the meeting and the retreat-like venue provided significant and generous opportunities for productive informal interactions between trainees, newer investigators and more senior investigators. We assessed outcomes with regard to attendee perceptions of the quality and impact of this meeting through post-conference surveys sent via email. We received responses from 36 (~30%) attendees. The survey results demonstrated that attendees felt that the meeting was of high quality and value. For example, 80% of exit survey respondents agreed that their scientific expectations for this meeting were met, 78% rated the scientific content as very good to excellent, and 86% of respondents agreed that presentations provided usable ideas and/or techniques. In summary, this Keystone Symposia meeting provided a unique forum for scientists working in different areas of biofuels research to report and critically discuss the latest research findings, many unpublished, and to interact with other experts in the field. More specifically, the meeting program was designed to help world-leading researchers across government, industry and academics advance alternative biofuels as a viable solution to the growing energy crisis. The future of sustainable biofuels depends heavily on international participation and deep understanding across the economics, life cycle analysis, cutting-edge science and technical detail of all aspects of biofuels. In addition, the meeting offered opportunities for career development for trainees and new investigators, including a forum for observing successful scientists presenting cutting-edge science and for networking with prospective mentors and others who might contribute to their scientific and professional development.
