Scott Banta Ph.D. is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University. He received his B.S.E. degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers University. He did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Shriners and Massachusetts General Hospitals and Harvard Medical School. He began his faculty career in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University in 2004 and his research has focused on the engineering of proteins and peptides for various applications in areas including biocatalysis, bioelectrocatalysis, biomaterials, gene and drug delivery, biosensing, and bioenergy. His group is also developing new biotechnology platforms for energy harvesting and conversion as well as metal and mineral processing.