Water Research Initiative

Research Summary

Technology and engineering in renewable energy, water and energy efficiency.

Bio

Seth W. Snyder, Ph.D. received a B.A. from University of Pennsylvania in Chemistry and Environmental Studies. He received an M.S. in Physical Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Virginia. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Argonne National Laboratory in Photosynthesis. He worked as an earlier career scientist at Abbott Laboratories, first in Alzheimer’s disease Research and later in Pharmaceutical Discovery Research. In 1998, Seth rejoined Argonne as the Associate Director of the Chemistry Division where he developed new programs in nanoscience and applied biotechnology. He returned to research in the Energy Systems Division as the Section Leader of Chemical and Biological Technology, and now Process Technology Research. His team develops new process technologies ranging from sustainable tree growth through bioconversion technologies and product separations. The goal is to improve energy efficiency in production of biofuels and biobased products, CO2 capture, and water treatment. In other technology areas, his team works on plastic recycling, PV materials, geothermal energy, battery materials, and magnetic materials.

He serves as the President of the Council for Chemical Research. He serves as Argonne’s Laboratory Relationship Manager for the DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office. He has an adjunct faculty position in engineering at Northwestern University, where he teaches a graduate level course in energy. He has a senior fellow appointment at the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC). He serves on the advisory council for the Midwest Aviation Sustainable Biofuels Initiative (MASBI). He serves on the advisory board for several academic centers including: the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s “Center for Advanced Bioenergy Research”, South Dakota’s “Center for Bioprocessing Research”, the NSF “Center for Bioenergy R&D”, and Iowa State University’s “Initiative for a Carbon Negative Economy”. He has affiliate appointments at the University of Chicago’s “Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology”, the U of C – Booth School of Business’s “Energy Initiative”, and the UIUC “Institute for Genomics Biology”.

He has published about fifty papers, has thirteen patents (issued and pending), has had his research presented at 75 conferences over the past nine years. He received the 2012 FLC Award for excellence in technology transfer, three R&D 100 awards and an Outstanding Mentor Award from the DOE FAST Program. He served as a Commissioner of Economic Development for the Village of Lincolnwood, as an early morning jazz DJ at Northwestern University’s WNUR, and has hosted dozens of students for the Niles Township High School District’s Job Shadowing program.

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