Team Leader
During his 27 years at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Mike Himmel has worked to support many technical aspects of the U.S. Department of Energy Biomass Program. More recently, he has been responsible for establishing the facilities and staff necessary to pursue projects in protein engineering and, specifically, cellulases. Today, Dr. Himmel manages the award-winning cellulase enzyme technology effort, as well as one major industrial and several academic subcontracts that support this work. The researchers have assembled world-class protein purification and characterization facilities at NREL, with special emphasis this past year on robotics systems for screening libraries derived from directed evolution technology. Dr. Himmel has contributed 300 peer-reviewed papers and meeting abstracts, four books, and 16 patents to the literature. He also chaired or co-chaired 15 international meetings in the field of biochemistry and biotechnology, including the 2003 Gordon Research Conference on "Cellulases and Cellulosomes." He holds a Ph.D., Biochemistry Department, Colorado State University, 1980.
