James D. McMillan, PhD.

An active AIChE member for over 20 years, Jim is a former elected director in AIChE’s Food, Pharmaceutical, and Bioengineering (FPB) Division. He has been involved with organizing and chairing numerous biochemical engineering-related sessions in the FBP Division. He also initiated and chaired for its first four years the highly popular annual AICHE topical conference on Biorefining, and he continues to play a behind the scenes role in organizing this conference.

With concerns about energy security and global climate change at all time highs, interest in biorefining and biofuels has never been greater and conferences related to these topics are proliferating at a rapid rate but unfortunately in a woefully uncoordinated fashion. Jim believes that he can help the Society of Biological Engineering (SBE) better coordinate professional society activities related to biorefining and biofuels. He is honored to have been nominated to serve on SBE’s Board of Directors and hopes you will support his election.

Biographical Information
James D. (“Jim”) McMillan is a group manager and principal chemical engineer in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Bioenergy Center. The group he leads works to advance biochemical- and thermochemical-based biorefining technologies, with a current focus on economical production of fuel ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstocks. He also co-chairs the Society of Industrial Microbiology’s annual Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals (SBFC) and is a member of both the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Jim is the author or co-author of six book chapters and more than 60 technical papers and reports and over 100 posters and presentations. He is the co-editor of the past six SBFC peer-reviewed proceedings volumes as well as the co-inventor on two patents and the co-recipient of two R&D 100 awards. He also is or has been an adjunct faculty member in the Colorado State University, University of Colorado, and University of Puerto Rico chemical engineering departments. He obtained his B.S. in chemical engineering with high distinction from Colorado State University, and his M.S. in chemical engineering practice and Ph.D. in biochemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.