Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has appointed a new executive director of the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC). The appointment of Praveen V. Vadlani, PhD, MBA, was effective January 7, and he will also hold a tenured faculty appointment as a professor in SIUE’s Department of Chemistry.
Vadlani’s work spans biofuels, biochemicals, biomaterials, fermentation systems and scalable process development, with a focus on improving yield, productivity and commercial viability.
“It’s a great honor to serve as the executive director at NCERC, SIUE,” said Vadlani. “NCERC is a premier nationally recognized research center catering to the needs of the biofuels, biochemicals and bioproducts industry, and I am delighted to be involved in the research, innovation and commercialization activities. I am also excited to be part of NCERC’s vision to enable the dawn of the new sustainable bioeconomy.”
Prior to joining SIUE, Vadlani held research and faculty appointments at Kansas State University, with work focused on grain science, renewable energy and bioprocessing systems. His earlier experience includes serving as a research scientist in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University and as a research fellow at the University of Malaysia’s Institute for Post-Graduate Studies and Research.
Vadlani’s background includes direct experience with ethanol systems and co-product optimization, as well as industry-scale fermentation and recovery operations and he has authored more than 100 scholarly publications and has served in professional and federal review roles related to biofuels and bioproducts research.