Iowa State researchers win R&D 100 Award for ethanol project

Iowa State University researchers, left to right, Anthony L. Pometto III, Hans van Leeuwen and Mary Rasmussen are the winners of a 2008 R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine. Here,... Click here for more information.

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State University and University of Hawai'i researchers have won national recognition for their work to grow microscopic fungus in leftovers from ethanol production in an effort to improve the efficiency of the corn-to-ethanol conversion process.

The project has been named a winner of a 2008 R&D 100 Award presented by R&D Magazine. The Chicago Tribune has called the awards, presented annually since 1963, the "Oscars of Invention." This is the 30th R&D 100 Award presented to a project affiliated with Iowa State.

An award letter said editors and a judging panel consider the project "one of the top 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year."

The award goes to Hans van Leeuwen, an Iowa State professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering and the leader of the research project; Anthony L. Pometto III, a professor of food science and human nutrition; Mary Rasmussen, a graduate student in environmental engineering and biorenewable resources and technology; and Samir Khanal, a former Iowa State research assistant professor who's now an assistant professor of molecular biosciences and bioengineering at the University of Hawai'i at Mânoa.

The award winners will be featured in the September issue of R&D Magazine. They'll also be honored at an Oct. 16 banquet at Chicago's Navy Pier.