As part of its ongoing efforts to provide hands-on training for all students, NCERC has launched a job shadowing program for high school students interested in learning about careers in biotechnology.

The Careers in Biotechnology job shadow program will facilitate on-site learning opportunities at the NCERC facility for students who want to learn about how biotechnology intersects with several different career fields, including chemistry, biology, engineering, business, communication, marketing, and others. The new program will pair high school students with NCERC’s individual staff members and give students exposure to different career paths in an innovative research environment.

“This opportunity has given me a significant advantage in refining what career path I want to pursue,” said Kennedy Voelker, a senior at Waterloo High School and the first participant in the NCERC job shadow program. “I’ve found that hands-on learning is critically important as it allows you to find what you will enjoy in your career and determine what you can be successful at. After having spent time with the NCERC staff, I’m eager to enter my senior year of high school and pursue a college degree in environmental science.”

On August 23, Senator Tammy Duckworth and United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited One Earth Energy in Gibson City, Illinois, where they talked to various stakeholders of the agriculture and ethanol industries. During the event, NCERC Director of Business Development & Client Relations Jackie Hayes spoke on a panel of leaders from across Illinois and shared her perspective on the value of expanded use of ethanol through bills like the Next Generation Fuels Act and the importance of this to future innovation in the biorenewables space.

Following the event at One Earth Energy, stakeholders went to a Casey's in Leroy, IL to celebrate the recent USDA announcement of the latest round of the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP), which provides $100 million of funds to fuel providers to install equipment compatible with higher blends of ethanol.

Thanks to Illinois Corn for the invitation!

Recent graduates with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Biology or Environmental Sciences, and currently enrolled at SIUE Graduate School.

 The National Corn to Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) is seeking a Research Assistant from SIUE. The RA will assist scientific supervisors with executing funded research projects through assignments in the following categories:

-Operation of bioreactors, ranging in scale from 250mL shaker flask to 30L.

-Analytical testing on media, culture, fermentation broth, etc.

- Experiment on product harvesting and purification

-Data collection, analysis, and reporting.

-Troubleshooting and maintenance of bioreactors and fermentation related equipment.

-Communications with internal, interdisciplinary teams as well as industry clients, academic collaborators, and external stakeholders.

-Revising and developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

-Utilizing experimental and empirical methods to interpret results and recommend design, testing, and maintenance solutions.

"As a public relations intern for the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center, Allison Simpson worked on a push for video-based content, in addition to creating social media posts and a social media contest for local teachers.

Simpson, a junior applied communication studies major with a focus in public relations from Tower Hill, Illinois, said her day-to-day work typically consists of touching base with the director of client relations, Jackie Hayes, to discuss what’s going on and work on the social media calendar.

'We will see what we're going to upload for social media that day and sometimes, I'll get on Canva and edit some of the graphics that we have,' Simpson said. 'I come up with captions, so ultimately for a social media post I'll draft a caption and send it to Jackie, and then she'll edit it and then once it's OK, I'll upload it to social media.'

One of the bigger projects Simpson said she worked on was a social media contest for Illinois teachers to win an ethanol demonstration board that shows the corn-to-ethanol process. She said she also helped update the board’s graphic, which had not been updated since 2007. "

NCERC's research team has been working on an in-situ fermentation of corn kernel fiber with intentions to produce high-protein DDGS for use in an aquaculture feeding trial. The early results of this study were showcased at the 2021 FEW and a new round of results will be showcased at the 2022 FEW. This project is in partnership with the University of Idaho's Aquaculture Research Institute.

Through funding provided by SIUE's Transitional & Exploratory Projects (STEP) grant program, NCERC will continue our research on the conversion of municipal solid waste (MSW), waste that comes from both residential and commercial sources, to biofuel. Ajay Venigalla, the student who lead this research over the last academic year, prepared this project for scale-up under the guidance of Dr. Yan Zhang. This work will continue when the NCERC research team has time in between contractual research projects. A special thanks to Waste Connections for providing quarterly samples of MSW!

NCERC Facility

August 3

SIUE

August 4

Bloomington, IL

August 8

Godfrey, IL

August 9

Minneapolis, MN

August 10-12

Gibson City, IL

August 23

August 31

SIUE

September 1

Washington, DC

September 12-15

St. Louis, MO

September 23

Milwaukee, MN

September 27-29

Milwaukee, MN

September 28

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