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Education

PhD, MIT, Department of ��Chemical Engineering, 2007

MSCEP, MIT, Department of ��Chemical Engineering, 2004

BS, Oklahoma State University, Department of ��Chemical Engineering, 2002

Selected Awards

• BioEnvironmental Polymer Society Outstanding Young Scientist Award, 2019
• R&D100 Award, 2018
• Federal Laboratory Consortium Notable Technology Award, 2018
• Beilby Medal and Prize, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2018
• ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Inaugural Award Lectureship, 2017
• SIMB Young Investigator Award, 2016
• AIChE Computational Science and Engineering Forum Young Investigator Award, 2014
• ACS OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, Fall 2014

Selected Publications

Christopher W. Johnson‡, Davinia Salvachúa‡, Nicholas A. Rorrer‡, Brenna A. Black‡, Derek R. Vardon‡, Peter C. St. John‡, Nicholas S. Cleveland, Graham Dominick, Joshua R. Elmore, Nicholas Grundl, Payal Khanna, Chelsea R. Martinez, William E. Michener, Darren J. Peterson, Kelsey J. Ramirez, Priyanka Singh, Todd A. Vander Wall, A. Nolan Wilson, Xiunan Yi, Mary J. Biddy, Yannick J. Bomble, Adam M. Guss, Gregg T. Beckham*, “Innovative chemicals and materials from bacterial aromatic catabolic pathways”, Joule. (2019) 3, 1523-1537.

Eric M. Anderson, Michael L. Stone, Rui Katahira, Michelle Reed, Wellington Muchero, Kelsey Ramirez, Gregg T. Beckham*, Yuriy Román-Leshkov*, “Differences in S/G ratio in natural poplar variants do not predict catalytic depolymerization monomer yields”, Nature Comm. (2019) 2033.

Nicholas A. Rorrer, Scott Nicholson, Alberta Carpenter, Mary J. Biddy, Nicholas J. Grundl, and Gregg T. Beckham*, “Combining reclaimed PET with bio-based monomers enables plastics upcycling”, Joule. (2019) 3, 1006-1027.

Lahiru Jayakody, Christopher W. Johnson, Jason M. Whitham, Richard J. Giannone, Brenna A. Black, Nicholas S. Cleveland, Dawn M. Klingeman, William E. Michener, Jessica L. Olstad, Derek R. Vardon, Robert C. Brown, Steven D. Brown, Robert L. Hettich, Adam M. Guss, Gregg T. Beckham*, “Thermochemical wastewater valorization via enhanced microbial toxicity tolerance”, Energy Env. Sci. (2018) 11, 1625-1638.

Harry P. Austin, Mark D. Allen, Bryon S. Donohoe, Nicholas A. Rorrer, Fiona L. Kearns, Rodrigo L. Silveira, Benjamin C. Pollard, Graham Dominick, Ramona Duman, Kamel El Omari, Vitaliy Mykhaylyk, Armin Wagner, William E. Michener, Antonella Amore, Munir S. Skaf, Michael F. Crowley, Alan W. Thorne, Christopher W. Johnson, H. Lee Woodcock*, John E. McGeehan*, and Gregg T. Beckham*, “Structural evolution and characterization of a plastic-degrading aromatic polyesterase”, PNAS (2018) 115, 4350-4357.

Larry E. Taylor II, Brandon C. Knott, John O. Baker, P. Markus Alahuhta, Sarah E. Hobdey, Jeffrey G. Linger, Vladimir V. Lunin, Antonella Amore, Venkataramanan Subramanian, Kara Podkaminer, Qi Xu, Todd A. VanderWall, Logan A. Schuster, Yogesh B. Chaudhari, William S. Adney, Michael F. Crowley, Michael E. Himmel, Stephen R. Decker*, Gregg T. Beckham*, “Engineering enhanced cellobiohydrolase activity”, Nature Comm. (2018) 1186.

Eric M. Karp‡, Todd R. Eaton‡, Violeta Sànchez i Nogué‡, Vassili Vorotnikov‡, Mary J. Biddy, Eric C.D. Tan, David G. Brandner, Robin M. Cywar, Rongming Liu, Lorenz P. Manker, William E. Michener, Michelle Gilhespy, Zinovia Skoufa, Michael J. Watson, O. Stanley Fruchey, Derek R. Vardon, Ryan T. Gill, Adam J. Bratis, Gregg T. Beckham*, “Renewable acrylonitrile production”, Science. (2017) 358, 1307-1310.

Gregg T. Beckham*, Christopher W. Johnson, Eric M. Karp, Davinia Salvachúa, Derek R. Vardon, “Opportunities and challenges in biological lignin valorization”, Curr. Opin. Biotech. (2016), 42, pp. 40-53.

Derek R. Vardon‡, Mary Ann Franden‡, Christopher W. Johnson‡, Eric M. Karp‡, M.T. Guarnieri, Jeffrey G. Linger, M.A. Salm, T.J. Strathmann, Gregg T. Beckham*, “Adipic acid production from lignin”, Energy Env. Science. (2015), 8, pp. 617-628

Christina M. Payne‡, Brandon C. Knott‡, Heather B. Mayes‡, H. Hansson, Michael E. Himmel, Mats Sandgren, Jerry Ståhlberg, Gregg T. Beckham*, “Fungal cellulases”, Chem. Rev. (2015), 115(3), pp. 1308-1448.

Jeffrey G. Linger‡, Derek R. Vardon‡, M.T. Guarnieri‡, Eric M. Karp‡, G.B. Hunsinger, M.A. Franden, Christopher W. Johnson, T.J. Strathmann, P.T. Pienkos, Gregg T. Beckham*, “Lignin valorization through integrated biological funneling and chemical catalysis”, PNAS. (2014), 111(33), pp. 12013-12018.

Brandon C. Knott, Michael F. Crowley, Michael E. Himmel, Jerry Ståhlberg, Gregg T. Beckham*, “Carbohydrate-protein interactions that drive processive polysaccharide translocation in enzymes revealed from a computational study of cellobiohydrolase processivity”, J. Amer. Chem. Soc. (2014), 136(24), pp. 8810-8819.

Arthur J. Ragauskas, Gregg T. Beckham, Mary J. Biddy, R. Chandra, Fang Chen, Mark F. Davis, Brian H. Davison, Richard A. Dixon, Paul Gilna, Martin Keller, Paul Langan, Amit K. Naskar, J.N. Saddler, T.J. Tschaplinski, Gerald A. Tuskan, Charles E. Wyman, “Lignin Valorization: Improving Lignin Processing in the Biorefinery”, Science (2014), 344, 1246843.

Heather B. Mayes, Linda J. Broadbelt, Gregg T. Beckham*, “How sugars pucker: Electronic structure calculations map the kinetic landscape of five biologically paramount monosaccharides and their implications for enzymatic catalysis ”, J. Amer. Chem. Soc. (2014), 136(3), pp. 1008-1022.

Research Interests

• Biomass conversion
• Plastics upcycling
• Biochemicals
• Green chemistry
• Metabolic engineering
• Heterogeneous catalysis
• Separations and chemical process development
• Molecular simulation

Our group develops green processes and green products using the tools of biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, and material science. Specifically, we focus on ways to improve lignocellulosic biomass conversion and in the area of plastics upcycling. We develop strategies and holistic processes that combine biological and chemical transformations to upcycle both low-value biomass components, such as lignin, and waste plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate, polyolefins, or other recalcitrant waste polymers into higher-value chemicals and materials. Our group combines expertise in metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, bioprocess development, separations, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, polymer synthesis and characterization, computational chemistry, molecular simulation, and process analysis.