Five Noble Foundation scientists receive funding from OBC

NEWS RELEASE
Issued - June 17, 2009

ARDMORE, Okla. – Five scientists with The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation recently received more than $750,000 in funding to conduct research on renewable energy as part of the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center (OBC), the state's first coordinated biofuels initiative.

"The Noble Foundation is excited to continue research as part of the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center," said Michael Cawley, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Noble Foundation. "We are confident our research will lead to great progress in renewable energy research to benefit Oklahoma."

Initiated in 2007, the OBC brings together Oklahoma's comprehensive higher education institutions - the University of Oklahoma (OU) and Oklahoma State University (OSU) - with the extensive plant and agricultural research of the Noble Foundation to initiate a cellulosic biofuels industry within the state. Together, the OBC institutions address the entire production chain for biofuels - from growing bioenergy crops in the field through the biorefining process.

The OBC is funded through allocations from the Oklahoma Legislature. The three research institutions received a total of $10 million in 2007 and $4 million in 2008. This funding represented the allocation of the 2008 monies. The projects were recommended for funding by an external review panel of the OBC based on scientific merit and the projects contribution to the initiative's overall research objectives.

The five Noble Foundation scientists to receive state and federal funds through OBC are:

John Blanton, Ph.D., $194,647. Blanton will evaluate switchgrass in a dual purpose bioenergy and stocker cattle production system.
Fang Chen, Ph.D., $88,940. Chen will study increasing lignin content for production of biomass better suited to gasification (supplemental funds).
Rick Dixon, Ph.D., $250,000. Dixon will work on the performance of transgenic plants to improve efficiency for bioethanol processing (supplemental funds).
Maria Monteros, Ph.D., $146,480. Monteros will study the development and application of genomic tools for enhancement of drought tolerance in alfalfa (continuation of existing project).
Jagadeesh Mosali, Ph.D., $70,000/$18,371. Mosali will study the effect of different winter legumes as nitrogen sources for switchgrass grown for cellulosic ethanol. Mosali will also do large- scale research on the sorghum connection to develop the Oklahoma sorghum-as-fuel industry.

Oklahoma Bioenergy Center (OBC) is a publicly funded initiative by the state of Oklahoma developed as part of Governor Brad Henry's vision for tomorrow's Oklahoma. Through the collaboration of its contributing institutions, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, the OBC intends to deliver practical outcomes to enable the competitive and sustainable production of liquid biofuels in Oklahoma and contribute to the national research effort to enable the United States to achieve prescribed levels of petroleum independence.

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For media inquiries concerning the Noble Foundation, please contact:

J. Adam Calaway

jacalaway@noble.org

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Inc. (www.noble.org), headquartered in Ardmore, Okla., is a nonprofit organization conducting agricultural, forage improvement and plant biology research; assisting farmers and ranchers through educational and consultative agricultural programs; and providing grants to nonprofit charitable, educational and health organizations.