Biomass Program Welcomes New Program Manager Paul Bryan

October 5, 2010

On September 27, Paul Bryan joined the Biomass Program as its new Program Manager. Paul spent 15 years at Chevron and for the last four years, he led their Biofuels Business Unit as Vice President of Technology, where he was responsible for building and managing the biofuels technology portfolio internally and through external collaborations with universities, national labs, and companies large and small. A chemical engineer by training, Paul holds a B.S. from Penn State University, a Ph.D. from Berkeley, and did post-doc work at the Ecole des Mines in Paris. He has also taught chemical engineering at MIT and the Colorado School of Mines.

"The Biomass Program has a singular opportunity to sustainably transform our renewable, non-food, domestic biomass resources into cost-competitive, high-performance biofuels, biopower, and biomaterials," said Paul. "Through targeted research, development, and demonstration with our public and private partners, we hope to secure for our nation the benefits an expanding bioindustry can bring energy security, rural economic development, greenhouse gas reductions, an improved balance of trade, stabilization of fuel prices, and American jobs. There are also pitfalls — economic, environmental, and social —in the implementation of major new biomass-based industries. Some have exaggerated those risks, but they are real, and to avoid them we need the very best science, technology, and analysis. The Biomass Program partners with National Labs, industry, academia, and other government agencies to ensure that those needs are met."