Professor Shapley received her B.A. from Boston University in 1977 and her Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 1981 under the direction of Professor Richard R. Schrock. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institut Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg, France, 1981-2. She is currently Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois with research interests in the area of green chemistry. The Shapley group synthesizes new transition metal complexes and investigates these complexes in the selective aerobic oxidation of organic molecules. Professor Shapley has also been active in using technology and new teaching methods in environmental chemistry education.

Ed Lehrburger co-founded PureVision Technology, Inc. in 1992 and has been serving as its President and CEO since 1998. Graduating from Western State College of Colorado with a business degree in 1978, Ed is a seasoned business entrepreneur who started and operated many successful businesses over the last 30 years. With extensive experience in technology development, communications, management and finance, Ed manages PureVision's technology advancement and scale-up programs. Ed's primary focus is to transform PureVision from a research and development company to a provider of cellulosic biorefining technologies on a large industrial scale throughout the world.

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Victor S.-Y. Lin, Professor of Chemistry, received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in the end of 1996. After working as a Skaggs postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Research Institute, he joined the faculty at Iowa State in the fall of 1999. Dr. Lin is the director of the Center of Catalysis at Iowa State University. He also serves as the Program Director of the Chemical and Biological Sciences Program in the U.S. Department of Energy Ames Laboratory. His research centers on the design of functional nanoporous materials for biotechnological and biomedical applications, such as biosensor design, drug delivery, and gene transfection. His group also specializes in the synthesis of mesoporous heterogeneous catalysts for various reactions, such as cooperative catalysis, carbonyl activation, biodiesel production, and other biorenewable energy applications. Professor Lin has received a number of awards for his work, including a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2002, a LAS award for Early Achievement in Research/Artistic Creativity in 2004 at Iowa State University, an Outstanding Technology Development award of the U.S. Federal Laboratory Consortium in 2005, and the ISU Award for Mid-Career Achievement in Research in 2008. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Advanced Functional Materials, WILEY-VCH