In Florida, US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack headed the “Top 100 People in Bioenergy” as voted by the readers of Biofuels Digest and the Digest’s editorial board, just edging out BP Biofuels chief Philip New, and the heads of Raizen, POET, Solazyme and Amyris. On that list is Robert Brown, the Anson Marston Distinguished Professor of Engineering, Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering, Iowa Farm Bureau director of the Bioeconomy Institute, director of the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies, and professor of mechanical engineering, chemical and biological engineering, and agricultural and biosystems engineering.
Brown’s name along with a short description as to why he was chosen was published in Biofuels Digest:
“That one of the most comprehensive and compelling biofuels research centers is based in Iowa is not entirely surprising, but its still an impressive array of research on both first- and second-generation biofuels. Recently, Robert Brown was organizer of a well-received international conference on pyrolysis and other thermal and catalytic approaches to bioprocessing, and the wide praise heard there is reflected also in the heavy voting for Brown in this year’s poll, where he placed among the top academics in the field. The fact that pyrolysis and thermocatalytic technologies are gathering momentum hasn’t hurt his profile among the readers one little bit.”
The complete list can be found on Biofuels Digest.