The Energy Biosciences Institute will begin a new biweekly seminar series this month focusing on areas of importance within the biofuel field. Each seminar will take place from 4 to 5 p.m. in 116 Calvin Laboratory, beginning with EBI Intellectual Property Manager Mitch Altschuler on Tuesday, Aug. 26, speaking about “Intellectual Property and the EBI”.

The talks are open to anyone on campus interested in the biosciences, and particularly to participants in the EBI research programs. Speakers will include program managers, principal investigators, and senior postdocs. The rest of the fall calendar:
•    Manfred Auer, Berkeley Lab microscopist working on imaging of the plant cell wall, Sept. 9; 
•    Paul Adams, of the Physical Biosciences Division, and Jim Schuck, Materials Sciences Division, Berkeley Lab, studying the chemical imaging of plant biomass, Sept. 23;
•    Choaguang Tian, postdoc in microbiologist Louise Glass’ UC Berkeley lab, where they are exploring fungal deconstruction of lignin in Miscanthus cell walls,  Oct.7;
•    David Zilberman, agricultural economist at UC Berkeley, researching the economics of biofuel adoption and impacts, Oct. 21;
•    Norm Miller, earth scientist at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab, working on biofuel productivity potentials for economic analysis, Nov. 18;
•    Matthias Hess, postdoc with geneticist Eddy Rubin at the Joint Genome Institute, studying microbes in bovine rumen to identify cellulolytic genes, Nov. 25;
•    Arpad Horvath, civil engineer at UC Berkeley, researching lifecycle environmental and economic decision-making for biofuels, Dec. 9.

Another schedule of speakers will be announced for the spring. EBI researchers are encouraged to recommend experts both within and outside the campus program. EBI will fund energy bioscience-related speakers who participate in other seminars on campus, and departments are eligible to request such support once each year. Suggestions should be submitted to EBI Assistant Director Susan Jenkins at SJenkins@berkeley.edu.