Dr. William D Provine's Talk

Feb 25, 2011 - 16:00

Feb 25, 2011 - 17:00

Creativity hall (Room 118) Chemical Eng.

Seminars

Dr. William D Provine Director of DuPont Biochemical Science and Engineering

Abstract: Metabolic engineering continues to develop as an important methodology for the production of chemicals and materials as researchers in laboratories throughout the world develop new ways to marry biochemical and molecular biological insights with systematic analyses aimed at facilitating radical redesign of metabolism. Over the past ten years enormous improvements in technological capabilities and theoretical understanding have occurred and approaches that once relied heavily on empirical observations and intuition are gradually yielding to those more firmly grounded in theory and supported by more methodologically sophisticated implementation and analysis. Over the same time the important relationship between process engineering requirements and metabolic engineering approaches has become even clearer as additional projects have come close to or achieved commercial application. Early interactions between metabolic and process engineers have been routinely shown to be most important in specifying the key deliverables that are needed from the metabolic engineering program. In effect process engineers and metabolic engineers working together from the beginning of a project and sharing with each other the perspectives and limitations inherent in their disciplines can find the optimal path to a solution which capitalizes on the strengths of each. In this presentation I will discuss metabolic engineering activities that have been underway at DuPont in recent years from further refinement of technology for the fermentative production of 1 3-propanediol from sugars to the elaboration of metabolic approaches for the production of long chain omega-3 fatty acids the production of fuels from lignocellulosic starting materials and the production of novel fuels such as iso-butanol. This is a diverse set of applications of metabolic engineering and each of these programs has an abundance of particular idiosyncratic needs defined by the product choice of organism and commercial value proposition – some determined by process engineering realities and some determined by metabolic engineering realities. However despite the enormous variation these programs also share important focusing features. It is hoped that the comparison and contrast will shed light on the state of metabolic engineering for the production of industrial products and provide useful perspective for further improvements.Speaker's Bio-sketch: Dr. William D. Provine is currently the Director of DuPont Biochemical Science and Engineering – BioFuels division of Central Research and Development. In his current role Dr. Provine has responsibility for biofuels research programs within DuPont including the biobutanol and cellulosic ethanol development efforts. Dr. Provine also serves on the board of directors for Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC and on the Technical Steering Committee for DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC – two key joint ventures of DuPont focused on the commercialization of next generation biofuel technologies. External to DuPont Dr. Provine serves on a number of advisory boards including the steering committees of the Joint BioEnergy Institute Great Lakes BioEnergy Research Center and BioEnergy Research Centers. He joined DuPont in 1992 and has served in a variety of research marketing business development and operations leadership roles including oversight for commercialization efforts in DuPont BioFuels. Dr. Provine also has managed key strategic collaborations around the world for DuPont in emerging technologies such as nanotechnology biomaterials and biofuels with companies universities government agencies and non-profit organizations. Dr. Provine grew up as a child in southern California. He attended the University of California Berkeley and the University of Delaware where he received B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering in 1987 and 1992. He now resides in Wilmington Delaware with his wife and two children.