Directors

Kollbe Ahn, Ph.D.

Research Faculty, Marine Science Institute
UC Santa Barbara

Research areas: Bio-inspired and bio-based materials; marine-inspired underwater adhesives/coatings and algal/plant-based polymers

Joint Associate Professor of Microbial and Environmental Genomics Department

J. Craig Venter Institute and Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Research areas: Ecological and functional genomics of marine microalgae, particularly diatoms; evolution and regulation of carbon, nitrogen and micronutrient metabolism; cell signaling mechanisms; biotechnology; microbial oceanography and marine carbon and nitrogen cycle; bioinformatics and comparative genomics.

Eric Allen, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marine Biology and Molecular Biology
Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Research areas: environmental genomics and microbial oceanography and ecology, with an emphasis on the genetic structure of microbial populations, and molecular genetics and ecological physiology of unique marine source lipids (e.g., microbial omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids)

Bianca Brahamsha, Ph.D. 

Research Biologist
Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Research areas: molecular analysis of the physiology of marine cyanobacteria of the genus Synechococcus, and isolation of new algal species for biofuel production

Steven Briggs, Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
UC San Diego

Research areas: mass spectrometry-based systems biology of the interplay between algal immunity and metabolism with emphasis on regulatory aspects of post-translational protein modifications

Michael Burkart, Ph.D.

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
UC San Diego

Research areas: developing systems for the study of natural product regulation and production

Geoffrey Chang, Ph.D.

Professor of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine
UC San Diego

Research areas: transporter mediated biofuel secretion of long-chain alkanes and multidrug resistance caused by efflux pumps, directed evolution of molecular scaffolds, and the molecular structures of human, plant, and bacterial transporters

Senyon Choe, Ph.D.

Professor and Director of Structural Biology Laboratory Salk Institute of Biological Studies Research areas: re-engineering microalgae for co-products and re-engineering Chlamydomonas for natural and engineered enzymes to enhance food products in collaboration with joint Center for Biosciences, Incheon, Korea

James DeKloe, Ph.D.

Professor of Biology and Biotechnology
Solano Community College

Research areas: director and founder of the industrial biotechnology program at Solano College, which emphasizes bio-manufacturing training in the skills required to work in Solano County biotech manufacturing companies

Michael Fino

Professor of Biotechnology
MiraCosta College

Research areas: developing, disseminating, and teaching curricular materials related to hands-on, engaging, science education towards high-growth, high-wage technical laboratory careers that match local industry workforce needs

Annaliese Franz, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Chemistry
UC Davis

Research areas:microalgae culturing and lipid extraction for biofuel feedstock, algae cultivation in wastewater, chemical triggers in microalgae to increase lipid productivity, lipid analysis, characterization of oxidative stress in microalgae, assay development, high-throughput screening, organic structure analysis, mechanistic analysis of organic transformations, NMR spectroscopy, computational chemistry and molecular modeling

William Gerwick, Ph.D.

Professor of Oceanography and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Research areas: biosynthesis of marine natural products and biofuel production by cultured marine microalgae, and molecular genetics of cyanobacterial natural products biosynthesis and on the molecular evolution of natural product pathways in marine cyanobacteria

James W. Golden, Ph.D.

Professor of Molecular Biology
UC San Diego

Research areas: genetics and molecular biology of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, improved genetic tools for synthetic biology, and metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria for the production of renewable products such as biofuels

Susan Golden, Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology
UC San Diego

Research areas: cyanobacterial genetics and molecular biology, including circadian-regulated gene expression, regulation of carbon storage, and high-value bio-product production

Arthur Grossman, Ph.D.

Professor Carnegie Institution for Science

Research areas: identifying new functions associated with photosynthetic processes, the regulation of sulfur metabolism in green algae and plants, and generating a more thorough analysis of the Chlamydomonas genome

Mark Hildebrand, Ph.D.

Research Professor
Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Research areas: gene expression in marine diatoms and on the use of diatoms for lipid production as a biofuel source, and nuclear transformation technologies in diatoms

Rosalina Stancheva, Ph.D.

Chief Scientist, Primary Algae Laboratory for SWAMP Program in California

Research areas: taxonomy, diversity, ecology and bioassessment application of freshwater algae, including diatoms and cyanobacteria; systematics and molecular phylogeny of green algae; isolation and culturing of freshwater algae for molecular studies

Jacob Israelachvili, Ph.D.

Professor
UC Santa Barbara

Research areas: intermolecular and inter-surface forces in complex fluid, biological, and materials systems; and measuring the forces between surfaces in liquids and vapors using the Surface Forces Apparatus

Alissa Kendell, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
UC Davis

Research areas: life cycle modeling of biofuels and food production systems, life cycle modeling of highway infrastructure, and development of a framework for life cycle modeling of long-lived and complex systems

John Love, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
San Diego State University

Research areas: protein design and engineering, and re-engineering natural enzymes to enhance the oil extraction process from algae and other carbon-neutral sources of biofuels

Tryg Lundquist, Ph.D., P.E.

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo

Research areas: algae biofuels and other microalgae products. Low cost, low energy intensity systems for reclamation of various wastewaters (municipal, agricultural, industrial). Anaerobic digestion. Disaster relief drinking water treatment

Stephen Mayfield, Ph.D.

Professor of Molecular Biology and John Dove Isaacs Chair of Natural Philosophy
Director, Cal-CAB
UC San Diego

Research areas: gene regulation in eukaryotic algae and the use of this algae for the production of human therapeutic proteins and as a platform for biofuel production, and developing molecular tools for algal genetic transformation

Anastasios Melis, Ph.D.

Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology
UC Berkeley

Research areas: studying diverting the flow of photosynthesis to generate high-value compounds in plants, microalgae, cyanobacteria, and photosynthetic bacteria for biofuel, feedstock for the synthetic chemistry industry and pharmaceutical generation

Dominick Mendola, Ph.D.

Senior Engineer
Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Research Areas: physiological growth dynamics of microalgae; conceptualization, design and engineering of aquaculture systems for the high yield production of micro- and macro-algal biofuels in outdoor raceways, greenhouses, and indoor photobioreactors

Krishna Niyogi, Ph.D.

Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology
UC Berkeley

Research areas: biosynthesis and function of photosynthetic pigments, assembly of photosynthetic reaction centers, structure and dynamics of the photosynthetic membrane, mechanisms involved in sensing excess light, and regulation of photosynthetic light harvesting in saturating light

Brian Palenik, Ph.D.

Professor of Marine Biology
Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Research areas: ecology, physiology, and genomics of marine microalgae focusing on cyanobacteria, small green algae such as Ostreococcus, and the prymensiophyte Emiliania huxleyi, and bringing novel species from these groups into laboratory culture for biofuel production

Bernhard Palsson, Ph.D.

Galetti Professor of Bioengineering and Adjunct Professor of Medicine
UC San Diego

Research areas: reconstruction of genome-scale biochemical reaction networks, and the development of mathematical analysis procedures for genome-scale models with current emphasis on cellular metabolism and transcriptional regulation in E. coli, yeast, and algae

Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology
UC Los Angeles

Research areas: development of computational tools for the analysis of sequence based genomic and epigenomic data

Laurent Pilon, Ph.D.

Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
UC Los Angeles

Research areas: light transfer and photobioreactor modeling and optimization, measuring the optical properties of various microalgae and cyanobacteria and developing advanced simulation tools and control strategies to optimize the design and operation of photobioreactors

Robert "Skip" Pomeroy, Ph.D.

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
UC San Diego

Research areas: application of analytical chemistry to samples relating to environmental, forensic and materials science, and the production of renewable biofuels

Betsy Read, Ph.D.

Professor of Biological Sciences
CSU San Marcos

Research areas: molecular mechanisms of calcification and coccolithogenesis in the marine algae, Emiliania huxleyi, and functional genomics

Jonathan Shurin, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution
UC San Diego

Research areas: control of productivity and diversity in algal communities by zooplankton consumers and the supply of limiting nutrients, the flow of energy and materials from algae to their natural enemies and the factors that allow grazers to exert strong impact on their resources or new species to invade communities

Herbert Waite, Ph.D.

Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
UC Santa Barbara

Research areas: developing the fundamental design principles involved in bio-adhesion, achieving translation to synthetic systems, and pioneering a systems approach to wet bonding that spans nano- to macroscale dimensions