Bioenergy Innovation Names Cregger, Eckert as CSOs
From left: Melissa Cregger, Brian Davison and Carrie Eckert are taking on new roles at the DOE Center for Bioenergy Innovation, headquartered at ORNL. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, or CBI, at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has promoted Melissa Cregger and Carrie Eckert to serve as chief science officers, advancing the center’s mission of innovations for new domestic biofuels, chemicals and materials.
Cregger will oversee CBI’s development of resilient, high-yielding, non-food feedstock crops, while Eckert will guide the center’s research on cost-effective methods to break down and convert plant biomass into valuable fuels and products.
Brian Davison, chief scientist for biotechnology at ORNL and formerly chief science officer for the center, has moved into a new role with CBI as industrial liaison, stewarding outreach as part of its Research Council. He also continues to lead a separate project, the DOE Solvent Disruption of Biomass and Biomembrane Structures in the Production of Biofuels and Bioproducts Science Focus Area at ORNL.
CBI is one of four DOE Bioenergy Resource Centers, or BRCs across the nation laying the science and technology foundation for a robust bioeconomy, boosting domestic supply chains and energy security while providing job growth in America’s rural areas. CBI has 17 research partners, encompassing national labs, universities and private industry. Together, the BRCs recently registered more than 1,000 inventions in their shared mission supporting the U.S. bioeconomy.
https://www.ornl.gov/news/center-bioenergy-innovation-taps-cregger-eckert-chief-science-officers