- Dr David Jones
- - Retired Dean, Head of Microbiology Dept. - University of Otego, New Zealand
- Professor Zhihao Sun
- - School of Biotechnology, Jianhan University, China
- Dr Peter Düerre
- - Professor and Department Head, Microbiology, University of Ulm, Germany
- Dr S.T. Yang
- - Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, the Ohio State University
- David Ramey
- - Founder, butylfuel™ LLC and investor, ConVergInce Holdings LLC
- Dr Teddy Ezeji
- - Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Biotechnology, the Ohio State University
- Dr Joy Peterson
- - Associate Professor of Microbiology, University of Georgia
- Dr Alan Keasley
- - Retired, BP Chemicals Research; Retired CEO, Titan Methanol
Dr David Jones (Scientific Advisor)
David obtained a Ph.D. in microbiology from Rhodes University and held academic positions at a number of universities in South Africa before moving to New Zealand in 1989. He was Professor and Head of Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Dean of the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Otago before retiring in 2007. David is a world leading expert on solventogenic Clostridia and their industrial application for the production of acetone, butanol and ethanol (ABE).
Professor Zhihao Sun (Scientific Advisor)
Zhihao is a Professor at the School of Biotechnology and Principal Investigator at the Biocatalysis Laboratory, Jiangnan University, China. Prior to joining Jiangsu in 1986, Professor Sun worked as a Chief Engineer in the butanol fermentation industry (Sichuan, China) for twenty years. He is widely regarded as an expert on the butanol fermentation process and recently published two review articles detailing the history and recent progress on the butanol fermentation in China.
Dr Peter Düerre (Scientific Advisor)
Peter is Professor of Microbiology and Head of the Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology at the University of Ulm in Germany with more than 30 years of experience in the field of Clostridia physiology and genetics. He serves as an editor of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology and was editor and senior editor as well as editorial board member of FEMS Microbiology Reviews, Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Genome Letters, and Applied and Environmental Microbiology. He is the author and co-author of more than 100 research articles and reviews as well as being editor of the books 'CRC Handbook on Clostridia', 'Clostridia-Biotechnology and Medical Applications', 'Nucleic Acids Isolation Methods', and 'Regulatory Networks in Prokaryotes'.
Dr S.T. Yang (Scientific Advisor)
Shang-Tian (S.T.) is a Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Biochemistry Graduate Program, and Food Science & Technology at The Ohio State University. S.T. has been involved in bioprocessing research for more than 25 years, and has 10 related patents. He is a world-renowned expert on Clostridium organisms and high productivity fermentation. During his 25 years at OSU, S.T. has supervised many research projects on novel processes for value-added products from food wastes, including metabolic engineering of anaerobic bacteria for butyric acid and butanol production, extractive fermentation for production of carboxylic acids, and novel bioreactor design and process scale up. S.T. received his Ph.D. degree from Purdue University (1984) and has published more than 150 journal papers, proceeding articles, and book chapters.
David Ramey (Founder, butylfuel™ LLC and Scientific Advisor)
David Ramey is the founder of butylfuel™ LLC and a scientific advisor to the company. David received the "Technologist of the Year" award in 1996 from the Ohio Academy of Science for his pioneering efforts to bring biobutanol to the market. David is a physicist by training with degrees in physics and mathematics from San Diego State University. In 2005, Mr. Ramey demonstrated the efficacy of biobutanol as a motor fuel to replace gasoline when he drove more than 10,000 miles across the U.S. in an unmodified 1992 Buick Park Avenue running on pure butanol to promote the advantages of biobutanol.
Dr Teddy Ezeji (Scientific Advisor)
Thaddeus (Teddy) is an Assistant Professor of Microbiology & Biotechnology in the Department of Animal Sciences at The Ohio State University and is a member of the Ohio State Agricultural and Development Center (OARDC). Teddy has extensive experience in lignocellulosic biomass processing and development, production, purification and process development of materials for bioenergy and bioproducts. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from University of Rostock, Germany in 2001 and serves on the editorial boards for World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, African Journal of Food Science, and the Continental Journal of Microbiology.
Dr Joy Doran Peterson (Scientific Advisor)
Joy is Director of the Biofuels, Biopower, and Biomaterials Initiative (B3I) at the University of Georgia, a Professor in the Microbiology Department, and a member of the Faculty of Engineering at the UGA. Joy received her undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and her Ph.D. from the University of Florida under the direction of Dr Lonnie Ingram. She has an active research laboratory at UGA and she also consults regularly for industry and the investment community. Joy was the Chair of the Fermentation and Biotechnology Division of the American Society for Microbiology 2008-2009 and is currently the Division Advisor.
Dr Alan Keasey (Scientific Advisor)
Alan graduated from Sheffield University in 1977 with a Ph.D. in chemistry before joining BP Chemicals Research Department. Over a 27 year career, Alan progressed from research and technical service (mainly solvents and fuels) into a business role covering at various times, specialty polymers and bulk chemicals. In 1997, Alan returned to technology as a Research Manager prior to moving to Trinidad with BP to look after their world scale methanol facilities as CEO and Chairman of Titan Methanol and then the BP Commercial Director responsible for Atlas Methanol and various Gas-to-Chemicals projects. In his career, Alan has been very active in the renewables sector, particularly biofuels, where he was Technical/Operations Director of Biofuels Corporation and is the Renewable Energy Association representative on the BSI and CEN fuel standards committees. Alan is Secretary of the Royal Society of Chemistry Management Committee.