As the Director for the Bioenergy Technologies Office, Dr. Valerie Sarisky-Reed oversees efforts to improve performance, lower costs, and accelerate market entry of advanced biofuels and bioproducts.
She has more than 24 years of experience in addressing energy and environmental issues faced by the United States and globally. In addition to her programmatic activities, she is a founding member of the Metabolic Engineering Working Group, which is an interagency effort to advance metabolic engineering technologies for industrial, agricultural, and human needs. She had the honor of serving the Chief Scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, helping to build bridges between the two agencies.
Science has been a key component of her professional career and education. She came from a family devoted to science—her father was a chemical engineer in agricultural biochemistry and her mother led the science department at a local high school.
Dr. Sarisky-Reed holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Georgetown University.