Featured Speakers

Keynote Speaker

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David Glassner, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President of Technology, Gevo

Dr. David Glassner is the Executive Vice President of Technology at Gevo and leads the company's isobutanol technology and engineering development. He has more than 20 years of experience developing and commercializing technologies that convert annually renewable resources to fuels, chemicals and other materials.

Prior to joining Gevo, Dr. Glassner was at NatureWorks LLC, where he led the development of novel yeast biocatalysts for the production of lactic acid and ethanol and the development of lactic acid, lactideand polylactide technology. Preceding NatureWorks, Dr. Glassner was the biofuels technology manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where he led the development of cellulosic processing technology and the construction of the biomass to ethanol process development unit. Dr. Glassner began his career at MBI International, where he was the Director of Bioprocess Development and led the development of a lactic acid pilot plant and patented processes for producing lactic acid, succinic acid, acetone, ethanol and butanol.

Dr. Glassner holds Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. degrees in chemical engineering from Michigan State University.

Banquet Speaker

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Robert Bud, Ph.D.
The British Science Museum

Robert Bud, Principal Curator of Medicine at London's Science Museum will give the RAFT banquet address. Robert Bud is an historian of science, technology and medicine who has worked since 1980 on the history of biotechnology. In his 1994 Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology he focused on the conceptions of fermentation as a unifying thread linking ideas of zymotechnology in the nineteenth century to modern enthusiasms for a new industrial revolution. Since then Oxford University Press has published his acclaimed book Penicillin: Triumph and Tragedy. He holds the post of Principal Curator of Medicine at the Science Museum where he has worked for thirty years. In 1986 he was responsible for the Chemical Industry gallery which explored the place of fermentation in the history of the industry, Acquisitions include pioneering equipment in the manufacture of power alcohol in the 1930s and fermentation equipment used in the manufacture of protein foods in the 1960s and 1970s as well as continuous fermenters, a special interest. He is also a Visiting Professorial Fellow at Queen Mary University of London and holds a doctorate in the History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania.