CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (April 2, 2007) Your car could soon become a vegetarian thanks to a process for cost-effectively converting cellulosic biomass, such as grass, wood, wheat and rice straw, into ethanol that can be used for fuel. When it does, it will be due to inventors such as Lee Lynd, professor of engineering and adjunct professor of biology at Dartmouth College, and co-founder of Mascoma Corp. Lynd received the inaugural $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability today, which recognizes inventors whose products and processes enhance economic opportunity and community well-being, while protecting and restoring the natural environment.
Lynd and his colleagues inventions are at the forefront of advanced technologies for converting biomass feedstocks into motor vehicle fuels. Lynd is being recognized for these inventions, as well as his vision and long-term advocacy of biofuels as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.
Decades ago, Lee Lynd started doing something about global warming and the rapid depletion of the worlds non-renewable energy resources, said Merton Flemings, director of the Lemelson-MIT Program. He continued to experiment and pursue his ideas even when the conventional wisdom said they couldnt be done.
Lees groundbreaking research has driven forward the public policy debate, the business world, and the fundamental science of bioenergy, said Nathanael Greene, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and one of Lynds nominators for the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability. His work has helped frame our basic understanding of the sustainable potential for bioenergy and especially biofuels.
A Harebrained Idea From a Compost Heap
In 1977, while an undergraduate biology major at Bates College, Lynd spent a summer working on an organic farm in North Reading, Massachusetts and was struck by how much heat a compost heap could generate. I said, my goodness, th
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Contact: Matt Paine
mpaine@coneinc.com
617-939-8314
Lemelson-MIT Program
2-Apr-2007