Michelle O'Malley

Last updated
Professor

Michelle O'Malley

Ph.D.
Alma mater Carnegie Mellon University
Scientific career
Institutions University of California, Santa Barbara

Michelle O'Malley is an American chemical engineer and professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. [1] She is known for her work studying the use of anaerobic microbes in developing inexpensive biofuels. [2] In 2015 she was named as one of MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators under 35, [3] and in 2016 she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. [4]

Contents

Early life and education

O'Malley received a B.S. in chemical and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004. [5] She earned her doctor of philosophy in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware in 2009, working with Anne Robinson expressing membrane proteins in yeast. [6] [7]

Career

O’Malley received a USDA-NIFA postdoctoral fellowship to perform biofuel research at MIT. [6] [8] In 2012 she joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara as an assistant professor. [9] O'Malley's research focuses on discovering, isolating, and characterizing cellulose-digesting fungi in the guts of herbivores. [10] [11] Enzymes from these fungi can be used to break down biomass (such as grasses) into simple sugars, which can be further fermented into biofuels. [12] Her research has been featured on NPR's Science Friday, as well as in Forbes and Mother Jones magazines, and she has been interviewed for two Science Career stories. [11] [13] [10] [14] [9]

Awards

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biofuel</span> Type of biological fuel

Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricultural, domestic or industrial biowaste. Biofuels are mostly used for transportation, but can also be used for heating and electricity. Biofuels are regarded as a renewable energy source. The use of biofuel has been subject to criticism regarding the "food vs fuel" debate, varied assessments of their sustainability, and possible deforestation and biodiversity loss as a result of biofuel production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renewable resource</span> Natural resource that is replenished relatively quickly

A renewable resource is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of time in a human time scale. When the recovery rate of resources is unlikely to ever exceed a human time scale, these are called perpetual resources. Renewable resources are a part of Earth's natural environment and the largest components of its ecosphere. A positive life-cycle assessment is a key indicator of a resource's sustainability.

Cellulosic ethanol is ethanol produced from cellulose rather than from the plant's seeds or fruit. It can be produced from grasses, wood, algae, or other plants. It is generally discussed for use as a biofuel. The carbon dioxide that plants absorb as they grow offsets some of the carbon dioxide emitted when ethanol made from them is burned, so cellulosic ethanol fuel has the potential to have a lower carbon footprint than fossil fuels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biorefinery</span> Refinery that converts biomass to energy and other beneficial byproducts

A biorefinery is a refinery that converts biomass to energy and other beneficial byproducts. The International Energy Agency Bioenergy Task 42 defined biorefining as "the sustainable processing of biomass into a spectrum of bio-based products and bioenergy ". As refineries, biorefineries can provide multiple chemicals by fractioning an initial raw material (biomass) into multiple intermediates that can be further converted into value-added products. Each refining phase is also referred to as a "cascading phase". The use of biomass as feedstock can provide a benefit by reducing the impacts on the environment, as lower pollutants emissions and reduction in the emissions of hazard products. In addition, biorefineries are intended to achieve the following goals:

  1. Supply the current fuels and chemical building blocks
  2. Supply new building blocks for the production of novel materials with disruptive characteristics
  3. Creation of new jobs, including rural areas
  4. Valorization of waste
  5. Achieve the ultimate goal of reducing GHG emissions
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bioenergy</span> Renewable energy made from biomass

Bioenergy is a type of renewable energy that is derived from plants and animal waste. The biomass that is used as input materials consists of recently living organisms, mainly plants. Thus, fossil fuels are not regarded as biomass under this definition. Types of biomass commonly used for bioenergy include wood, food crops such as corn, energy crops and waste from forests, yards, or farms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste-to-energy</span> Process of generating energy from the primary treatment of waste

Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste, or the processing of waste into a fuel source. WtE is a form of energy recovery. Most WtE processes generate electricity and/or heat directly through combustion, or produce a combustible fuel commodity, such as methane, methanol, ethanol or synthetic fuels, often derived from the product syngas.

Second-generation biofuels, also known as advanced biofuels, are fuels that can be manufactured from various types of non-food biomass. Biomass in this context means plant materials and animal waste used especially as a source of fuel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algae fuel</span> Use of algae as a source of energy-rich oils

Algae fuel, algal biofuel, or algal oil is an alternative to liquid fossil fuels that uses algae as its source of energy-rich oils. Also, algae fuels are an alternative to commonly known biofuel sources, such as corn and sugarcane. When made from seaweed (macroalgae) it can be known as seaweed fuel or seaweed oil.

George W. Huber is an American chemical engineer. He is the Richard L. Antoine Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. His research focus is on developing new catalytic processes for the production of renewable liquid fuels and chemicals.

Michelle C. Y. Chang is a Professor of Chemistry and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a recipient of several young scientist awards for her research in biosynthesis of biofuels and pharmaceuticals.

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation is a New York City-based foundation founded in 1946 by chemist and investor Camille Dreyfus in honour of his brother, Henry Dreyfus. The two men invented the acetate yarn Celanese, and Henry Dreyfus was founder and chairman of British Celanese, parent of the Celanese Corporation of America. Following Camille's death in 1956, his wife, the opera singer Jean Tennyson, served as the foundation's president until her death in 1991.

The award, sponsored by The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, was instituted in 1993 with the intention of recognizing "significant accomplishments by individuals who have stimulated or fostered the interest of women in chemistry, promoting their professional development as chemists or chemical engineers." Recipients receive $5,000, a certificate, up to $1,500 for travel expenses, and a grant of $10,000. The deadline for nomination is 1 November every year.

Yield10 Bioscience is a company developing new technologies to achieve improvements in crop yield to enhance global food security.

Stephen L. Buchwald is a U.S. chemist and Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry at MIT. He is known for his involvement in the development of the Buchwald-Hartwig amination and the discovery of the dialkylbiaryl phosphine ligand family for promoting this reaction and related transformations. He was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2000 and 2008, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hai-Lung Dai</span> Taiwanese physical chemist

Hai-Lung Dai is a Taiwanese-born American physical chemist and university administrator. He currently is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Chemistry and Vice President for International Affairs at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

<i>Tetradesmus obliquus</i> Species of green algae

Tetradesmus obliquus is a green algae species of the family Scenedesmaceae. It is commonly known by its synonym, Scenedesmus obliquus. It is a common species found in a variety of freshwater habitats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Dauenhauer</span> American chemical engineer and researcher

Paul Dauenhauer, a chemical engineer and MacArthur Fellow, is the Lanny & Charlotte Schmidt Professor at the University of Minnesota (UMN). He is recognized for his research in catalysis science and engineering, especially, his contributions to the understanding of the catalytic breakdown of cellulose to renewable chemicals, the invention of oleo-furan surfactants, and the development of catalytic resonance theory and programmable catalysts.

The Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards are awards given to early-career researchers in chemistry by The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc. "to support the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences." The Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar program began in 1970. In 1994, the program was divided into two parallel awards: The Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program, aimed at research universities, and the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program, directed at primarily undergraduate institutions. This list compiles all the pre-1994 Teacher-Scholars, and the subsequent Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholars.

<i>Anaeromyces robustus</i> Fungus living in the gut of cows and sheep

Anaeromyces robustus is a fungal microorganism that lives in the gut rumen of many ruminant herbivores such as cows and sheep. Previously thought to be protozoa from their flagellated zoospores, they are biomass degraders, breaking down carbohydrates and plant materials from the food the animal ingests. This fungus, therefore, is anaerobic and lives without oxygen. Gut fungi are dramatically outnumbered by other organisms in the microbiome; they are members of the gut microbiome in ruminants and hindgut fermenters and play a key role in digestion.

Blake A. Simmons is an American chemical engineer, entrepreneur and an academic. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, the Division Director for Biological Systems and Engineering at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Chief Science and Technology Officer at the Joint BioEnergy Institute.

References

  1. ↑ "Michelle O'Malley". chemengr.ucsb.edu. 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  2. ↑ Manke, Kristin (2016-05-01). "What Biofuel Production Can Learn from the Zoo: Michelle A. O'Malley". U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  3. 1 2 "Michelle O'Malley | Innovators Under 35". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  4. 1 2 "Honoring Federally-Funded Scientists and Engineers at the Forefront of Research and Discovery". whitehouse.gov. 2016-05-05. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  5. ↑ "Alumni in the News: Professor Michelle O'Malley Receives Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award". www.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  6. 1 2 "Michelle O'Malley". www.aiche.org. 2018-02-13. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  7. ↑ "Anne Skaja Robinson Lab: alumni". www.che.udel.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  8. ↑ "Converting plant waste into biofuels". Main. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  9. 1 2 Kuo, Maggie (2016-09-16). "Getting the most out of your postdoc". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  10. 1 2 Jula, Megan. "Scientists are learning exciting new things from shitholes". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  11. 1 2 "A Dung Detective Hunts For Rare Microbes". Science Friday. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  12. ↑ O’Malley, Michelle A.; Thompson, Dawn A.; Regev, Aviv; Grigoriev, Igor V.; Theodorou, Michael K.; Wright, Aaron T.; Purvine, Samuel O.; Brewer, Heather M.; Lipzen, Anna (2016-03-11). "Early-branching gut fungi possess a large, comprehensive array of biomass-degrading enzymes". Science. 351 (6278): 1192–1195. Bibcode:2016Sci...351.1192S. doi:10.1126/science.aad1431. ISSN   0036-8075. PMC   5098331 . PMID   26912365.
  13. ↑ Conca, James. "Can Goat Poop Overpower Fossil Fuels?". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  14. ↑ Kuo, Maggie (2017-05-23). "Yes, you can have a life outside the lab". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  15. ↑ "May 13: Colburn Memorial Lecture". UDaily. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  16. ↑ "NSF Award Search: Award#1553721 - Caree: Designing Synthetic Anaerobic Consortia for Bioproduction". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  17. ↑ "2017 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards | Dreyfus Foundation" . Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  18. ↑ "Professor Michelle O'Malley Receives Young Investigator Award from ACS Biochemical Technology Division". chemengr.ucsb.edu. 2018-11-13. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
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