Scientific Advisory Board

Leo E. Manzer is the President of Catalytic Insights LLC, which he founded to provide consulting expertise in problems related to catalysis and process development. Before founding Catalytic Insights LLC, Dr. Manzer had a long and illustrious career at DuPont, where he founded and directed the company's Corporate Catalysis Center. In this position, he oversaw research programs in homogeneous, heterogeneous, and enzyme catalysis. During his tenure at DuPont, he led the R&D effort to develop replacements for ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons. He was very active in the field of catalytic conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals. He achieved DuPont’s highest level of professional recognition for scientists and was named a DuPont Fellow. He is the author of over 90 publications and the holder of over 120 U.S. patents and >500 international patents. He has also received numerous awards, including the Eugene J. Houdry Award in applied catalysis and three National Awards from the American Chemical Society. He also participated in the 2002 Presidential National Medal of Technology Award to DuPont, where he was one of three scientists recognized for the development of CFC alternatives. Dr. Manzer received his doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of Western Ontario.

Rudolf K. Thauer obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Freiburg in Germany, it was here he did his postdoctoral work with Karl Decker. His key research areas include biochemistry, physiology and ecology of anaerobic bacteria and archaea with a focus on the enzymes and coenzymes involved in the energy metabolism of Clostridia, of sulfate-reducing bacteria and archaea, of methanogenic and methanotrophic archaea, and of aerobic methanotrophic bacteria. He is the author of over 400 publications and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in 1987. In 2008 he was awarded the Carl Friedrich Gauß-Medal from the Brunswick Scientific Society.  In 1991 he became founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg where he is currently the Emeritus group leader. He is also a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) in Madison, Wisconsin.

Prof. Dürre has more than 25 years experience in the field of clostridial genetics. Major research projects have included genetics and function of ATPases, cell differentiation (spore formation) in clostridia, regulation of acetone and butanol formation in Clostridium acetobutylicum and metabolic engineering of solvent-producing strains for industrial use. He holds diplomas in microbiology, biochemistry and organic chemistry. Following his PhD he went to the University of California, Berkeley as a postdoctoral fellow with the German Research Council.

Peter Dürre is currently Professor of Microbiology and head of the Microbiology and BioTechnology Departments at Ulm University in Germany. He is the editor of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology and the Senior Editor of Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology. He is also the author and co-author of more than 90 research articles and reviews as well as being editor of the books 'CRC Handbook on Clostridia', 'Clostridia-Biotechnology and Medical Applications', 'Nucleic Acids Isolation Methods', and 'Regulatory Networks in Prokaryotes'.