Paul Dauenhauer received a bachelor of science in chemical engineering and chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2004, and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2008 supervised by Professor Lanny D. Schmidt. From 2008 to 2009, Paul worked as a senior research engineer for the Dow Chemical Company within Core R&D Reaction Engineering. In 2009, he joined the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Chemical Engineering as an assistant professor. As of 2014, he is the Lanny & Charlotte Schmidt Professor and MacArthur Fellow at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. His published patent applications serve as the scientific foundation of three startup companies: Sironix Renewables, Activated Research Company, and enVerde, LLC.