WISCONSIN ENERGY INSTITUTE - Key Persons
Allison Bender joined the Wisconsin Energy Institute as Outreach and Events Coordinator in 2018. She has a background in environmental education and has worked as a naturalist in state parks across Wisconsin and Minnesota. After completing a B.A. in environmental studies at St. Olaf College, she served as an AmeriCorps Member conducting watershed outreach at Whitewater State Park in Minnesota's Driftless Region. At WEI, Allison coordinates a wide variety of educational programming and works with scientists and researchers to translate their work into hands-on activities, lessons, and events for learners of all ages.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Professor of Genetics for the J.F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution
Chris Hittinger studies the diversity and evolution of yeast carbon metabolism, which is controlled by a complex system of interacting genes that respond to different carbon sources and determine the organism's energy-use strategy. By understanding how evolution has sculpted and rewired yeast gene networks to meet their different ecological needs, Hittinger hopes to better understand how to engineer complex biological systems to meet our energy needs.
Christine Preston joined WEI in March of 2023 as the Administrative Director. She brings efficient and creative professional skills to leadership, fundraising and grant management. Preston has an extensive history working in higher education, including years of experience at other schools and departments at UW-Madison.
Christine is originally from Wyoming, but has adopted Wisconsin as her beloved home. She misses the Rocky Mountains but a trip or two out west each year help satisfy that calling. She has two grown sons; Cody and his wife Claudia live in rural Marshfield, WI with a goal of boarding horses, and her younger son Ben is enjoying exploring the hiking and biking trails of northern WI. Christine and her husband, Kevin, love to travel, watch Badger sports, try new foods, and check out local breweries!
Job Titles:
- Information Services Director
- Member of the Executive Committee
Norman joined Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) in 2010 and leads application development, infrastructure and operations teams in support of GLBRC's research missions. He and his team are charged with designing, implementing, and supporting a broad array of technologies utilized by staff and researchers, including storage and compute resources, custom-built applications, data management and sharing tools, and informatics/data analysis pipelines.
He brings over 16 years of experience in technology leadership to GLBRC, having worked at multiple world-renowned research centers within the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Job Titles:
- Director
- & GLBRC Director, Ira L. Baldwin Professor of Bacteriology
The Wisconsin Energy Institute Director, Dr. Timothy Donohue, is Ira L. Baldwin Professor of Bacteriology and UW Foundation Fetzer-Bascom Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Donohue is an internationally-recognized expert on bio-and genome-based conversion of renewable resources into valuable products. He is a Past President and current Secretary of the American Society for Microbiology, the oldest and largest biological sciences professional society in the country. Dr. Donohue is an honorary fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology, has served on numerous federal and international advisory panels, and has led large federally-funded cross-disciplinary graduate training programs. Since 2007, Dr. Donohue has served as principal investigator and director of Great Lakes Bioenergy, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science-funded renewable fuels and chemicals research center that has trained some 1000 scientists and engineers, made advances contained in over 200 patent applications and 100 licensed technologies, and provided the scientific knowledge that has formed the basis of five start-up companies.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Bacteriology
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
The broad objective of Trina McMahon's research program is to improve our capacity to predict and model microbial behavior, while searching for novel biologically mediated transformations that can be harnessed for engineering applications, including energy production.
McMahon studies the microbial ecology of both natural and engineered systems using molecular tools to investigate microbial community structure and function in lakes and activated sludge. She also uses high-frequency environmental sensor networks to measure important variables that we know influence bacterial communities and is particularly interested in phosphorus, nitrogen, and carbon cycling in lakes and how this relates to eutrophication and water quality. McMahon and her team use highly resolved time series sampling of multiple lakes, combined with metagenomics and meta-trascriptomics to explore how different lineages of freshwater bacteria contribute to this cycling.
She is also engaged in metagenomic and post-genomic approaches to dissecting the metabolism of bacteria specialized in the sequestration of phosphorus in activated sludge. This information will ultimately lead to the construction of more predictive mechanistic and ecosystem-scale models to describe such processes as wastewater treatment and freshwater nutrient cycling.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Consolidated Papers Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Mark Anderson, Ph.D., directs the Thermal Hydraulics Laboratory (THL) at UW-Madison, which is focused on experimental aspects of thermal energy transport across several energy sectors including solar, wind energy, thermal energy storage and advanced power cycle development. Anderson studies the physics, thermal hydraulic performance, and material corrosion issues of several different fluids (salts, liquid metals, supercritical water (SCW), supercritical CO 2 (SCO 2)). He studies supercritical fluids and has active research on the SCO2 Brayton cycle for nuclear, solar and fossil advanced power generation. He is one of the UW's Co-PIs on the Department of Energy fluoride-cooled nuclear reactor integrated research project and focuses on salt chemistry, purification, and materials compatibility.
Mary Blanchard joined the Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI) in January of 2014 as associate director. Blanchard's career portfolio spans business development, product management, governmental relations, and marketing.
Formerly the Director of Marketing and Governmental Affairs at Virent, Inc., Blanchard brings an extensive knowledge of the biofuel industry and a broad understanding of the economic, social and environmental opportunities created by sustained, cross-disciplinary research on energy. She recognizes that innovations that improve the way we source and use energy can provide competitive advantage for industry, save money, open new markets, and create jobs, while reducing the environmental impacts of energy use.
Twenty years of industry experience have also taught Blanchard the value of creativity and versatility in approaching scientific projects aimed at complex industrial markets.
Blanchard holds bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering and English from the University of Notre Dame, a master's degree from the London School of Economics, and a MBA from Northwestern University.
Research Interests
Energy policy and regulation
Energy research collaboration
Energy stakeholder networks
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing & Communications
Matt Wisniewski has been with the Wisconsin Energy Institute since 2012, serving in a variety of communications roles. As Director of Marketing & Communications, Wisniewski oversees all of the WEI's editorial, graphic design, web development, and multimedia output in an effort to better communicate WEI's research to scientific colleagues, students, members of industry, and members of the public.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Michael J. Wagner is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining UW-Madison in 2020, Wagner was a researcher and project leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and applied mathematics from the Colorado School of Mines.
Before joining NREL, Wagner worked as a graduate research assistant at UW-Madison's Solar Energy Lab, where he developed an optimization/design tool and detailed transient system component models for power tower technology. In 2019, Wagner was the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering.
Job Titles:
- Graduate Student Spotlight
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Scientist
- Scientist in John Ralph 's Lab
Rebecca Smith is a scientist in John Ralph's lab at the Wisconsin Energy Institute and Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC). Smith received her undergraduate degree from the University of Manitoba and her PhD in Botany from the University of British Columbia. She conducted postdoctoral research in the Ralph Lab before moving into her current role.
In 2018, Smith received the Robert Rabson Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists, which honors early career professionals for their excellent contributions to bioenergy research. She also received GLBRC's 2018 Women in Science Award.
As a member of the Ralph Lab, Smith's research focuses on how to make lignin more digestible. The Ralph group is recognized for their work on lignin biosynthesis, including delineation of the pathways to monolignol biosynthesis, lignin chemistry, and lignin reactions.
Research Interests
Lignin biosynthesis, structure, chemistry, and reactions
Lignocellulosics bioprocessing
Development of synthetic methods for biosynthetic products
Job Titles:
- Research and Education Coordinator
As Research and Education Coordinator for the Wisconsin Energy Institute, Scott Williams administers the Energy Analysis and Policy graduate certificate and the undergraduate Certificate in Engineering for Energy Sustainability and teaches courses in these programs. He also supports WEI's public education and outreach programming as well as extracurricular student activities related to energy education and career connections. Williams obtained a Master of Public Affairs degree in May 2010 from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed the Energy Analysis and Policy Certificate as part of his graduate program. He holds a B.A. in Journalism and History from UW-Madison, and previously worked as a morning news producer at NBC15 in Madison.
Research Interests
Collegiate energy education
Energy career opportunities
Energy policy and regulation
Wind energy training
Whitney Loo will join the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering as an Assistant Professor in January 2023. Whitney obtained her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from MIT. She obtained her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley in 2020 where she worked with Nitash Balsara studying the molecular level physics of block copolymer electrolytes for Lithium metal batteries. Most recently, she is a Postdoctoral Scholar working jointly at the University of Chicago with Paul Nealey and the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab with Ricardo Ruiz. Her postdoctoral research involves the design of novel polymers and nanofabrication techniques for block copolymer nanolithography.
Her research group at UW-Madison will design polymers for a more sustainable future. Projects will include the synthesis and characterization of sustainable polymers as well as the development of sustainable polymer-based devices such as battery electrolytes and fuel cell membranes.