As a leading provider of workforce training and hands-on learning in the bioindustrial manufacturing sector, NCERC publishes an annual Workforce Training & Education Report that summarizes various opportunities for students to learn outside of the classroom, as well as NCERC’s programs that train the next generation of leaders in the bioeconomy.

This year's report features students and staff from the 2022-2023 academic year, including interns, graduate assistants, Visiting Research Fellows, Postdoctoral Research Fellows, and projects that are led by students.

Please share this report with your stakeholders!

NCERC's Marketing/PR team consisting of Director of Business Development Jackie Hayes and Market Research Intern Nadia Graber participated in the SIU Day at the Capitol on April 18 in Springfield, IL.

SIU Day at the Capitol allows members of the SIU system and its three institutions to showcase the great work that they're doing to train the next generation of leaders throughout Illinois. NCERC was one of several booths that were available to educate members of the Illinois General Assembly and legislative assistants about their missions and the impact they have on the communities we serve.

In April, NCERC welcomed Lucas Clayton as its newest visiting research fellow. Funded by the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, the nine-month fellowship program is intended to provide training and hands-on experience to prepare the next generation of engineers and scientists for work in mid- to high-skill jobs in the bioeconomy.

Clayton graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in chemical engineering in 2022. His role at NCERC will include working directly with NCERC’s research and operations staff to support pilot- and demonstration-scale projects.

“As NCERC’s newest visiting research fellow, I’ve enjoyed getting to learn about NCERC’s capabilities while putting the knowledge I learned through my degree program to use,” said Clayton. “I’m grateful for this opportunity and look forward to becoming a valuable member of NCERC’s dynamic team. The research we do here has a positive impact on so many and I’m glad that I get to be a part of it as a recent college graduate.”

Between 300 to 400 bioeconomy professionals were in attendance at last week's BioMADE Annual Member Meeting.

NCERC Director of Business Development & Client Relations Jackie Hayes actively participated at the meeting, presenting in two separate sessions. As part of three BioMADE-funded projects, NCERC was very visible at the meeting, including a fermentation-capacity series of presentations and a panel discussion around Education and Workforce Development in bioindustrial manufacturing.

In addition to the presentations, NCERC was featured in two posters featuring the ALAKA'I project (Save the Date below!) and a technical project with start-up Valerian Materials that is currently scaling the production of betamethylvalerolactone (BMVL), a bio-based molecule with potential to be converted into several different types of polymeric materials and products.

A current and former intern at NCERC were featured last month in news releases shared by SIUE's Marketing & Communications Department and featured exciting impacts they're having on the SIUE community.

Current Marketing/PR intern Allison Simpson is taking a course offered by SIUE in collaboration SIUC and is focused on public relations principals in sports communication. Simpson currently also interns with the St. Louis Cardinals and the STL-based XFL team, the STL Battlehawks. Majoring in applied communication studies on a public relations track and minoring in mass communication, Simpson has enrolled into a sports public relations course at SIUC, matching her professional interests.

Former intern and graduate assistant Krista Russell performed a study that was recently published and shows the lack of correlation between increased ethanol use as a result of the Renewable Fuel Standard and direct land use change. Russell earned a master’s in environmental science from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) in 2020 and the results of her research shows the scientific community and the public valuable insights into modern agricultural practices as a complex system, where farmers must make decisions using many different skillsets related to science, the economy, and business management, among others.

Happy #EarthDay23! NCERC is proud to contribute to the decarbonization of the transportation and industrial manufacturing sectors and support a greener future for the planet through research and innovation.

On August 11, 2023, NCERC will co-host the Green Drives Conference and Expo at our host university, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. The Green Drives Edwardsville event is the first down-state event hosted by the Illinois Alliance for Clean Transportation that expanded state-wide in 2022.

For over a decade the IL-ACT (formerly Chicago Area Clean Cities Coalition) Green Drives Conference and Expo has been one of the largest clean-vehicle conferences held in the Midwest. This will be a must-attend event for commercial and municipal fleet managers, dealership personnel, businesses, conversion companies, suppliers, and clean-tech professionals in the Southern Illinois region.

Attendees not only get a chance to network with experts from throughout the nation and the region, but they learn of first-hand experiences from fleets currently using alternative fuels. Attendees also get an opportunity to test drive vehicles of all different sizes.

Learn more and register online! Early Bird General Admission is $75 and the deadline to take advantage of the discount is on July 21, 2023.

There are still several sponsorship opportunities available! Click here to download the sponsorship package. Event or sponsorship questions? Contact Joy Piazza, jpiazza@IL-ACT.org, 301.337.0898.

Successful transformation to the bioeconomy requires cross-disciplinary fluency informed by robust guiding principles on what it means to be sustainable. ALAKAʻI (Applied Life Science Academy: Knowledge Advancing Industry) is creating short, non-credit educational modules that address these needs so bioeconomy professionals can be more effective leaders.

Indigenous Hawaiian and Pacific Island perspectives on sustainability are increasingly informative for addressing climate change while enhancing communities and improving standards of living. ALAKAʻI trainings in technical, business, and social considerations for building the bioeconomy will be complemented by these perspectives, including the ways of waʻa (canoe), voyaging, and societies that endured for centuries in isolated island environments.

NCERC is part of the planning committee and we will have two sessions on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi in 2023:

We will also have cultural and sustainability immersion activities over the intervening weekend. Professionals from all level within their organizations are encouraged to attend. For more information, including hotel block reservations, please sign up for our distribution list at bioecon@hawaii.edu!

With support from an industry partner who has provided woody biomass samples from California almond and walnut orchards, NCERC is in the process of scaling up a woody biomass to biofuel project in January and February 2023. We anticipate performing multiple 5L runs and hope to scale up to 100L by the end of February. Dr. Mingjun Ma, NCERC's postdoctoral research fellow is leading the project. This is a critical project for gathering data for NCERC's proprietary low cost/low carbon pretreatment method for cellulosic feedstock to biofuel conversion.

Thanks to the support of the Renewable Fuels Association, NCERC is completing a project on the quantification of ethyl carbamate in DDGS sampled from 33 US ethanol plants. As of February 2, 2023, we're still in need of 7 samples from ethanol plants, and if you'd like to contribute a sample, please contact Jackie at jhayes@ethanolresearch.com.

For several years, NCERC has been developing and validating a proprietary method to accurately quantify the converted fraction of corn kernel fiber via in situ fermentation. We're currently in the process of running the method on industry samples and hope to present the results at industry conferences in 2023.

St. Louis, MO

April 5

NCERC Facility

April 6

Minneapolis, MN

April 25 - 27

Carbondale, IL

April 27

Waterloo, IL

April 28

NCERC Facility

May 3

Edwardsville, IL

May 4

St. Louis, MO

May 11

Omaha, NE

May 16

St. Louis, MO

May 17

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