2025 Agenda | Bioderived Materials and Chemicals in Circular Bioeconomy Systems Conference

Welcome

7:00am – 8:00am – Breakfast and Registration Opens (Inspiration Salon B)

8:30am – Welcome and Opening Remarks (Inspiration Salon A)

8:45am – Keynote Address: Guus ter Haar, Circle Economy, Tackling the global circularity gap

9:15am – Keynote Address: Orlando Rojas, University of British Columbia, Innovations in Bio-Based Chemicals and Materials: A Colloidal Systems Approach

9:45am – Keynote Q&A

10:00am – Break

Session 1:

Time	Session 1A: Engineering Sources of Sustainable Carbon (Inspiration Salon A) Moderator: Haibo Huang	Session 1B: Engineering Sources of Sustainable Carbon (Inspiration Salon CD) Moderator: Niki Labbé
10:20am	Greg Liu, Virginia Tech Chemical upcycling of plastic waste into high-value surfactants	Sudhager Mani, University of Georgia Sustainable biomanufacturing of materials and chemicals in circular forest bioeconomy system
10:40am	Radika Bhaskar, Thomas Jefferson University Mycelium-based composites using biomass residues: Opportunities to advance regional and resilient supply-chains	Kalavathy Rajan, Texas Tech University Monolignol based molecular heaters to combat cold stress in crops
11:00am	Stephanie Herbstritt, Virginia Tech Transforming the “bio-mess” to carbon negative bioeconomies	Young Teck Kim, Virginia Tech Conversion of food waste into renewable package materials – the USDA Pilot Program Project
11:20am	Lillian Lower, North Carolina State University Bio-based battery materials for circular energy storage systems	Meisha Shofner, Georgia Tech Pathways toward commodity mechanical metamaterials: Harnessing traditional paper and nonwoven processing to product auxetics with natural fibers
11:40am	Blake Simmons, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory From the bench to the barrel: Scale-up of protic ionic liquids and amines for biomass pretreatment	James Sternberg, Clemson University Lignin and glycerol as bioderived agents for films, foams, and adhesives: Structure-property relationships and biodegradability performance

12:00 p.m. – Networking Lunch (Inspiration Salon B)

Session 2:

Time	Industry Panel (Inspiration Salon A) Moderator: Eric Dobson, *University of Tennessee*
1:15pm	Corey Tyree, Trillium Renewable Chemicals Jorge Gonzalez, UL Research Institutes’ Materials Discovery Research Institute Scott Kuhlman, ReCircled Brewer Logan, Verenovo Larissa Fenn, Rayonier Advanced Materials, Inc. Sarah Sullivan, Kraton Chemical, LLC

2:45pm – Break

Time	Working Group 1:	Working Group 2:
3:15pm	Working Group 1: Survey of Current Gaps (Inspiration Salon A) Moderated by Joe Sagues, North Carolina State University / Gopinath Munisamy, University of Georgia	Working Group 2: Survey of Current Gaps (Inspiration Salon CD) Moderated by Sam Jackson, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology / Haibo Huang, Virginia Tech

4:45pm – Reconvene and Report Out: Moderated by Niki Labbé, University of Tennessee (Inspiration Salon A)

5:30pm – Close of Day 1

Evening Session:

6:00pm – Reception & Poster Session (Hallway)

6:30pm – Dinner (Inspiration Salon B)

8:00pm – Poster Session, (cont.)

Session 3:

7:00am – 8:00am – Breakfast and Registration Opens (Inspiration Salon B)

Time	Session 2A: *Modeling Applications in CBS* (Inspiration Salon A) Moderator: Joe Sagues	Session 2B: Sustainable Manufacturing: Industry Challenges and Collaborative Solutions (Inspiration Salon CD) Moderator: Gary Thompson
8:30am	Jeremy Guest, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign BioSTEAM and the prioritization of research, development, and deployment pathways for the conversion of plants to products	Jason Locklin, University of Georgia Assessing the biodegradation and compostability of flexible packaging: Collaborations between the New Materials Institute and the industry supply chain
8:50am	Minliang Yang, North Carolina State University TEA-driven design for sustainable food systems	Art Ragauskas, University of Tennessee Extracting Value for Biomass
9:10am	Matt Langholtz, Oak Ridge National Laboratory National strategies to advance the bioeconomy for multiple markets	Bernardo Vidal, Novonesis Sustainable biological solutions in corn biorefining
9:30am	Joe Sagues, North Carolina State University Quantifying atmospheric carbon removal at pulp and paper mills: A life cycle assessment across system boundaries	Soledad Peresin, Clemson University Biobased polymer assemblies and their contribution to mitigating significant environmental challenges
9:50am	Juliana Vasco-Correa, Penn State University Integrating experimental insights into process models for circular bioeconomy systems analysis	Claudia Pabón Pereira, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Traesure Bridging the circularity gap: A conceptual framework for the biological cycle of the circular economy

10:10am – BREAK

Time	Session 3A: Networking for Innovation: Collaboration Opportunities in CBS (Inspiration Salon A) Moderator: Gopinath Munisamy	*Session 3B: Building the Future: Education & Workforce Development* (Inspiration Salon CD) *Moderator: Sam Jackson*
10:40am	Erin Webb, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Building a national, multidisciplinary effort for Circular Bioeconomy Systems	Michele Morris, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology Seeding the future bioeconomy: Building the STEM workforce though HudsonAlpha educational outreach
11:00am	Gopinath Munisamy, University of Georgia UGA Circular Bioeconomy System initiative and opportunities in the Southeast	Zachary Adams, TN Board of Regents Innovative workforce development for developing industries and trades
11:20am	Lynn Wendt, Idaho National Lab Utilizing preprocessing to manage the variability of emerging biomass and waste materials for the bioeconomy	Veronica Morin, Alabama Community College System Partnering for progress: How the Alabama Community College system powers workforce development through industry collaboration
11:40am	Kirsten Allen, Schmidt Sciences Advancing interdisciplinary research in the circular bioeconomy	Kevin Taylor, Alabama Industrial Development Training Empowering talent: Workforce solutions for the bioscience industry

12:00pm – Networking Lunch (Inspiration Salon B)

Session 4:

Time	Panel Discussion: Research strategies and partnerships, and regional industry commitments for accelerating deployment of CBS Programs (Inspiration Salon A) Moderator: Brahm Verma, *University of Georgia*
1:15pm	Kirsten Allen, Schmidt Sciences Brad Day, University of Tennessee Stephanie Herbstritt, Clean Air Task Force Gary Thompson, AgInnovation South Sarah Sullivan, Kraton Chemical, LLC