Joy Doran Peterson, PhD
Assistant Professor of Microbiology,
The University of Georgia
Dr. Joy Doran-Peterson is Director of the Biofuels, Biopower, and Biomaterials Initiative (B3I) at the University of Georgia, a Professor in the Microbiology Department, and a member of the Faculty of Engineering at the UGA. B3I is an 80+ member group of faculty and staff synergized to bring focused effort to addressing our transition from a petroleum-based economy to a biologically-based economy. Joy received her undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and her PhD from the University of Florida under the direction of Dr. Lonnie Ingram, a pioneer in the bioenergy field. Doran-Peterson's laboratory at UGA has four major foci: 1) mining microbial diversity for new organisms, enzymes, and antimicrobials; 2) developing methods for disrupting biomass to release sugars; 3) improving existing fermentation processes; and 4) integrating all of the above for an economically viable and environmentally sustainable process. She has an active research laboratory at UGA and she consults regularly for industry and the investment community. Joy is also the Chair for the Fermentation and Biotechnology Division of the American Society for Microbiology and she has presented cellulosic ethanol-related talks on numerous occasions in the US and abroad. Her lab has developed methods for ethanol production from a wide variety of biomass substrates including pine, paulownia, forestry residues, sugar beet pulp, sugarcane bagasse, citrus processing wastes, whey, municipal solid waste, corn hulls, corn stover, rice hulls, wheat straw, sorghum, sweet potatoes, algae, and food processing wastes, to name a few. Conversion of agricultural and forestry residues to liquid fuel and specialty products is the major focus of her research program. Joy is the mother of twin second-grade environmentalists who hope that her group's work in alternative fuels from renewable and sustainable resources will have a positive impact on the stewardship of our planet.
