Stuart Birrell is an associate professor ofagricultural and biosystems engineering at IowaState University. His research is concentrated in two areas: (1) the development of sensors and controls that can be applied in advanced machinery control and in precision agriculture, and (2) harvest technologies and biomass harvesting and logistics. Some of his present projects include developing a real-time soil nitrate sensor system for precision nitrogen applications, development of sensors based on dielectric measurements, industry-sponsored combine harvesting projects, and development of biomass harvesting systems.

Rob Anex is an associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State University. He holds a BS and MS in mechanical engineering and a PhD in environmental engineering from the University of California, Davis. Anex is an expert on biofuel production systems considered from “field to fuel.” He is the principal investigator of projects assessing the impacts of the widespread adoption of lignocellulosic biomass conversion technology; developing productive, efficient, and sustainable strategies for using corn stover biomass as a feedstock; and nutrient cycling in coupled agricultural and industrial systems. He is associate director of the Bioeconomy Institute at Iowa State, a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, and an editor for the Journal of Industrial Ecology.

Randy Killorn‘s responsibilities are primarily undergraduate teaching and research in soil fertility. His research focuses on the effect of nitrogen fertilizer and animal manure on crop production and the environment. His projects include:

• Nitrapyrin project : The objectives of this project are to study the effect of spring addition of nitrapyrin on the yield of corn grain and nitrogen recovery in the harvested portion of the crop. Sources of nitrogen used in the study are liquid urea ammonium nitrate (32% N) and liquid swine manure. The project includes a large field where is collected data using remote sensing techniques.

• Specific site manure aplication : Using GPS and GIS software, this project studies the reliability of applying manure using those tools in terms of plant response and changes in soil nitrogen

• Soil phosphorus and molybdenum behavior after applying liquid manure and sewage sludge : This project is being conducted to study the effect of addition of liquid swine manure and sewage sludge on the forms of phosphorus in soils

• Assesing of soil phosphorustatus under diferent agronomic land use : An approach for studying the spatial distribution of soil P forms in the soil. This research is being carried out in Costa Rica, Central America in an Andisol under different tropical cropping systems.

Killorn received his BS in zoology at Montana State University, his MS in soil science at Montana State University, and his PhD in soil science at the University of Idaho.

Larry Shrawder is president and CEO of Harvest Technologies Incorporated, which is headquartered in Kempton, Pennsylvania. He also has facilities in Brighton, Indiana and Chatham, Ontario. He has directed cob harvests since 1983 at his Pennsylvania location, perfecting a complete system to harvest cobs off the combine, store the cobs, and deliver “just-in-time” year-round to the Pennsylvania mushroom industry. He has perfected storage systems that allow for storage of cobs at any moisture level, and currently has a patent pending on storage systems for cobs for the ethanol industry. Six years ago, Shrawder expanded his cob operations to include seed cobs from several of the largest seed production plants in the Midwest. He currently handles over 35,000 tons of cobs per year. He has pioneered the development of the cob collection industry, inventing the necessary cob equipment and processes, and has harvested over 150,000 acres and 130,000 tons of combine cobs over the past 25 years, making him a preeminent authority on the collection of combine cobs in the industry today. Shrawder also works with several companies in the ethanol, energy, and grinding industries on their feedstock supply chains.

Larry Johnson is director of the Center for Crops Utilization Research. His interests include value-added processing of cereals and legumes, especially corn and soybeans; extraction, separation; food and industrial product applications of vegetable and unconventional protein sources; and processes for fabricated foods. Johnson received his PhD. in food science at Kansas State University.

Russ Sanders is director, end use markets and biofuels for Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont Company. He is responsible for Pioneer’s strategies to develop grains for specific downstream market uses. He also leads Pioneer’s biofuels business initiative and is a member of the management team for DuPont Biofuels. In this role, he coordinates biomass feedstock strategy development at Pioneer to complement DuPont’s processing technologies. Sanders joined Pioneer’s nutrition and industry markets group in 1996 and then transitioned to optimum quality grains, a DuPont/Pioneer joint venture where he served as vice president for sales and marketing. Prior to joining DuPont/ Pioneer, he was senior vice president of marketing and sales for Premium Standards Farms, one of the largest vertically integrated pork production companies. Earlier in his career, he served as chief executive officer of the National Pork Producers Council for seven years, headquartered in Des Moines. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BS in farm operations. He is a past recipient of the ISU College of Agriculture’s Floyd Andre Award, recognizing distinguished service to agriculture.

Joe P. Colletti is a professor and senior associate dean for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. His areas of Interest are economics of short-rotation woody crops, agroforestry systems, integration of forestry and agriculture via mathematical programming models, and optimizing private forest resource management. He received his BS, in forestry at Humboldt University, his MS in forest economics at University of Wisconsin–Madison, and his PhD in forest economics at University of Wisconsin–Madison

Maria Baboi is originally from Romania. She has recently been employed as a research scientist at Iowa State University and a technical director for SoyWorks Company. Her area of interest is focused on biobased plastics. She received her doctoral degree in agricultural and biosystems engineering and studied ultrasonic welding of aluminum alloys. She received her master’s degree in industrial education and technology, where she specialized in the processing of soy-based plastics.

Larry Shrawder is president and CEO of Harvest Technologies Incorporated, which is headquartered in Kempton, Pennsylvania. He also has facilities in Brighton, Indiana and Chatham, Ontario. He has directed cob harvests since 1983 at his Pennsylvania location, perfecting a complete system to harvest cobs off the combine, store the cobs, and deliver “just-in-time” year-round to the Pennsylvania mushroom industry. He has perfected storage systems that allow for storage of cobs at any moisture level, and currently has a patent pending on storage systems for cobs for the ethanol industry. Six years ago, Shrawder expanded his cob operations to include seed cobs from several of the largest seed production plants in the Midwest. He currently handles over 35,000 tons of cobs per year. He has pioneered the development of the cob collection industry, inventing the necessary cob equipment and processes, and has harvested over 150,000 acres and 130,000 tons of combine cobs over the past 25 years, making him a preeminent authority on the collection of combine cobs in the industry today. Shrawder also works with several companies in the ethanol, energy, and grinding industries on their feedstock supply chains.

Scott Rempe is a senior project engineer for Vermeer Corporation in Pella, IA. He is a graduate of Iowa State University. During his 17-year tenure at Vermeer, Rempe has served as an engineer in the agricultural products division with responsibility for the Round Baler product line, and at the corporate level working with patents, intellectual property issues, and in product safety. Rempe is currently working with a team of people at Vermeer concentrating on equipment solutions for biofeedstock harvest, storage, transport, and pre-processing.