Our Technology Advisory Panel
Dr. John Benemann is currently active on advisory boards and as a consultant to several domestic and overseas governmental agencies and corporations. He was a key participant in the US Department of Energy "Aquatic Species Program" and a principal author of the 1998 final report issued by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Among many other activities during the past decade, Dr. Benemann was a member of the US DOE-NETL (National Energy Technology Laboratory) Peer Review Committee Carbon Sequestration Programme and Manager of the International Network on Biofixation of CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Abatement with Microalgae" operating under the International Energy agency "Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme." Dr. Benemann is a director of the Algal Biomass Organization, a not-for-profit industry association. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from UC Berkeley, where he later worked as an independent investigator with a founding figure in U.S. microalgae research, Prof. William Oswald.
Dr. Ami Ben-Amotz is Emeritus Professor of Marine Phycology at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Haifa, Israel. Prof. Ben-Amotz has served as Head of the Department of Marine Biology at NIO and Head of the Dunaliella Section at the Weitzman Institute of Science (WIS), Chief Scientist of Nature Beta Technologies and recently as Chief Scientist of Nikken Sohonsha Co., Japan. Prof. Ami Ben-Amotz founded Seambiotic Ltd in 2004; a company devoted to the cultivation and production of marine microalgae on wastes of electric power plants, namely smoke stack and turbine cooling seawater. Prof. Ben-Amotz has more than 130 publications and supervised dozens of students mostly on aspects related to marine microalgae, Dunaliella and natural carotenoids.
Prof. Mario Tredici is full professor of Microbiology at the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Florence and President of the European Algae Biomass Association. He founded the spin-off company Fotosintetica & Microbiologica Srl. He has been President of the Int. Society of Applied Phycology and consultant for the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, the International Energy Agency, the oil companies ENEL SpA, Enitecnologie SpA in the field of algae. He has been Technical Advisor of the “International Network on Biofixation of CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Abatement with Microalgae” and is member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Aurora Biofuels.
Dr. Ausilio Bauen is a Director of the sustainable energy consultancy E4tech. He has 15 years experience on technical, economic, environmental and policy aspects of energy systems, bioenergy in particular. Has worked with industry, investors and governments to assess bioenergy opportunities and develop related strategies. Has published extensively in the area, and is lead author of recent bioenergy sector review for the International Energy Agency. Is part of national and international technical and strategic advisory committees, such as for the German Biomass Research Centre. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College London’s Centre for Energy Policy and Technology. Ausilio holds degrees in Physics and Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Environmental Technology with Energy Policy from Imperial College, and has a PhD on techno-economic and environmental aspects of biomass energy from King's College London.