Energy BioScience Institute-University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Embarking on a journey of discovery is always exciting, as any of the scientists at the Energy Biosciences Institute can tell you. Like the explorers of old, the partners in the Institute are setting forth in a colossal search for new breakthroughs that will lead to sustainable, clean fuel sources, like non-food crops from which biofuels can be made. "Our mission is to harness the potential of bioenergy, to make discoveries and commercialize realities out of these, which could benefit the world," says Institute Director Dr. Chris Somerville, who leads a team of top researchers affiliated with the EBI, a partnership between BP, the University of California, Berkeley; the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and the University of Illinois.