Dr. Matthew Realff, professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and David Wang Senior Faculty Fellow, has been appointed associate director of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute to help develop programs in chemicals and fuels. He has been at Georgia Tech since 1993, after completing his Bachelor’s degree at Imperial College London and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at MIT in 1992. He was National Science Foundation (NSF) program director from 2005-2007 and currently serves as an NSF external expert in resilient infrastructure systems. In December 2013 he was appointed Associate Director of the Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute.

He has current research projects in lignocellulosic pretreatment process innovation, carbon dioxide capture from flue gas streams sponsored by the DOE, and in bio-based chemical process design sponsored by NSF. With professor Carsten Sievers, he played a leadership role in organizing the RBI symposium on lignocellulosics opportunities October 1-2.