Dr. Lauren Valentino is an Environmental Engineer in the Applied Materials Division at Argonne National Laboratory. She is Argonne’s co-lead of the Separations Consortium, a multi-national laboratory collaborative effort that is supported by U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). The Separations Consortium aims to address technical challenges associated with cost-effective production of biofuels and bioproducts. At Argonne, Lauren is working to address the challenges associated with clean and sustainable energy supplies. More specifically, her research focuses on material and technology development for various separations applications, including product/resource recovery, carbon dioxide capture, and waste-to-energy processes. In addition, she is evaluating the economic feasibility and environmental impacts associated with bioprocessing separations technologies. Prior to her current role, Lauren held a postdoctoral appointment at Argonne National Laboratory, where her work focused on energy efficient selective separations based on electrochemical processes. Lauren completed her B.S. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a minor in Chemistry in 2011, M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering in 2013, and Ph.D. degree in Environmental Engineering in 2017 all at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.