(January 31, 2012) Washington - The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and the Renewable Fuels Foundation (RFF) are excited to announce the eight recipients of a scholarship to attend the 17th Annual National Ethanol Conference: Accelerating Industry Innovation. This is the third consecutive year the scholarship has been available to students in higher education. These recipients will receive a complimentary registration to the conference, providing them an invaluable experience and opportunity to connect with hundreds of ethanol leaders, policy makers and experts in the renewable fuels industry.

The National Ethanol Conference (NEC) has been recognized as the preeminent conference for delivering accurate, timely information on marketing, legislative and regulatory issues facing the ethanol industry.  With numerous networking opportunities, more business meetings are conducted and contacts made at this conference than any other ethanol conference. This year’s program will highlight how the ethanol industry continues to evolve to meet the demands of a rapidly changing marketplace. With federal policy changing, the global, market-driven environment in which the industry must compete comes with new market challenges. Industry leaders and experts will address how we are meeting these new demands by accelerating innovation in technology, marketing, logistics and feedstocks for the production of advanced ethanol.

Each scholarship recipient is a student in higher education that has focused their studies on renewable energy and biofuels and is interested in pursuing a career in the industry. “It is very encouraging to see such high levels of interest in biofuels from students year after year through this program,” said Mike Jerke, RFF Chairman and General Manager for Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company.  “Networking with experts in the U.S. ethanol industry gives these students a first-hand look behind an evolving industry and the direction it is heading. This is a chance for them to explore the opportunities the industry has to offer.”

The eight recipients of the NEC Scholarship are:

Olumoye Ajao is currently a Ph.D student in chemical engineering at the École Polytechnique de Montréal. His research focus at the Research Unit on Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development of the Forest Biorefinery is the development of biorefinery processes for the production of ethanol and furfural from hemicelluloses.

Anahita Eckard is a PhD candidate and graduate research assistant in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at South Dakota State University. She is currently conducting research on novel surfactant and proteinaceous micelles that can improve the activity of cellulytic enzymes and fermenting yeast for production of bioethanol.

Ted Elverson is majoring in Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering at South Dakota State University.  He grew up on a farm and has strong roots in agriculture.  Ethanol is a large part of agriculture and has affected him for most of his life.  This has led him into an internship with POET and a career focus in the biofuels.

Hunter Flodman is a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.  He is a co-instructor for process control and unit operations courses.  Hunter’s research involves utilizing dry grind corn ethanol co-products to produce value added products. 

Jason Levar is in his second year at A.A.S. Energy Technical Specialist program at Minnesota West Community & Technical College. Jason wishes to pursue a career in the ethanol and renewable fuels industry once he completes his degree.

Karen Lewis is from a fifth generation family farm in Michigan that was settled in 1876.  She is currently a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University in the Morrison School of Agribusiness and Resource Management. Her research area of interest is agricultural policy analysis.

Vinay Patel is an MBA student at Troy University in Troy, AL with a focus in Information Systems. Vinay is currently participating in National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition under United States Department of Energy (DOE).

Yi Wang holds a Master degree in Environmental Engineering from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and is now pursuing his PhD degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Yi’s research relates to biofuel production from lignocellulosic feedstocks through fermentation with clostridium or yeast. 

The Renewable Fuels Foundation (RFF) is dedicated to meeting the education, research and strategic planning needs of the U.S. fuel ethanol industry. The goal is to assure a growing healthy renewable fuels industry well into the future. The focus of the RFF is toward academia, industry and public policy makers as we address issues related to new users, new feedstocks and new technologies that will impact the future of ethanol. For more information visit www.renewablefuels-foundation.org.