SAN DIEGO--- Industry & Academia Leaders to Join Engineering Advisory Council for Genomatica
Genomatica Inc., a sustainable chemical company, today announced the formation of the company's Engineering Advisory Council. The Council will provide advice and guidance to Genomatica's process engineering team as they prepare Genomatica's breakthrough bio-manufacturing processes for commercial production of industrial chemicals.
This past September, Genomatica announced a novel bio-manufacturing process for the production of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) from renewable feedstocks - sugar and water. Since that announcement, the company has continued to improve the process, making it more cost effective and productive. As the BDO process moves further downstream and to larger scales, it requires broader and more varied competencies to succeed, such as strong process engineering. Formation of the Engineering Advisory Council marks the next stage of development. Genomatica's in-house process engineering team has already begun to design, model and optimize fermentation and separations processes for BDO, as well as other products in its maturing pipeline.
The Engineering Advisory Council is composed of preeminent engineering leaders from both industry and academia, including several who are members of the National Academy of Engineering. Inaugural members of the Council are the distinguished chemical engineers Frank Bates, Page Shirtum and Matt Tirrell. Genomatica expects to make select additions to the Council that complement this strong core and bring additional engineering expertise in chemical and bioprocess development.
"Working with these world-class engineers will bring Genomatica's unique bio-manufacturing processes to world-scale production smoothly," said Christopher Gann, CEO of Genomatica. "Chemical producers are interested in using our technology and processes to make their supply chain more sustainable and cost effective. The deep experience of the Council will help us design the best possible processes for large-scale bio-manufacturing."
The Engineering Advisory Council will meet several times each year to assist Genomatica's process engineering team. The Council will serve as a sounding board for process development ideas and plans, will provide process design, modeling and experimental advice and guidance, will offer a connection with an extended engineering network, and will provide case-by-case consultancy on specific engineering topics.
Matt Tirrell is the Richard A. Auhll Professor and dean of engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He won numerous awards and honors including the APS John H. Dillon Medal and the Charles M. A. Stine Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Page Shirtum is president of RPS Engineering and formerly spent more than 32 years as a senior engineer and research fellow of The Dow Chemical Company. He has received numerous awards in his distinguished career, including the Dow Environmental Care Award in 1996 and the prestigious H.H. Dow Medal in 2000. His broad industrial experience across many different fields of engineering will be invaluable to Genomatica in its commercialization activities.
Frank Bates currently is Regents Professor and head of the chemical engineering and materials science department at the University of Minnesota, where he has been since 1989. He has won many honors and awards, including the APS John H. Dillon Medal, the APS Polymer Physics Prize and the 2008 Sustained Research Prize. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society and he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2002.
"I am honored to help Genomatica realize its vision of a chemical industry revolution through bio-manufacturing," said Matt Tirrell. "It is an exciting moment when engineering process development can give practical expression to breakthrough research."
About Genomatica
Genomatica is focused on producing sustainable chemicals. Genomatica is revolutionizing the chemical industry with groundbreaking technologies that sustainably transform chemical production processes through bio-manufacturing. Founded in 2000 by research scientists from the University of California at San Diego, Genomatica develops a broad range of biologically produced industrial chemicals from a variety of renewable feedstocks at a fraction of the cost.
A privately held company, Genomatica is backed by top Silicon Valley venture capital firms Mohr Davidow Ventures, Alloy Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Genomatica is based in San Diego.