The Brace Lab was well-represented at the 46th Symposium on Biomaterials, Fuels and Chemicals (SBFC) hosted by the Society for Industrial Microbiology (SIMB) in Alexandria, VA. Boston College Engineering students Isabella Doyle, Bennett Lewis, Gillian Mohr (freshmen), Will Rice, and Claire Richter (sophomores) were all able to go thanks to partial support from the Engineering department.
We were able to do some pre-conference sightseeing around the Washington, D.C., area. Our lab mascot Lil Baldy (more formally known as Baldwin the Eagle, Jr.) came along for the adventure.
All five students presented a poster on what they’ve been working on this semester: sustainable production of xylitol from lignocellulosic biomass. They got a lot of great feedback on experimental design and possible future work! We were also invited to give a one-minute “Rapid Fire” presentation of our poster, which Will did a great job presenting! The students also all enjoyed the poster sessions and conference talks and gaining more understanding context for the basis of the research work we do.