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IBRL Team

Title: Executive Director
Phone: (217) 333-9510
Email: vsingh@illinois.edu

Dr. Vijay Singh is a Founder Professor in Grainger College of Engineering, Distinguished Professor of Bioprocessing in the college of ACES, Executive Director of Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory at the [...]

Title: Associate Director of Strategic Operations
Phone: (217) 300-5404
Email: bjacobs3@illinois.edu

Brian Jacobson joined IBRL in February 2012 and is responsible for management of the IBRL, FSHN-PPP, and associated programs. He oversees the five technical departments (Fermentation, Downstream Processing, Food Processing, [...]

Title: Associate Director of Business Development
Phone: (217) 300-4543
Email: bconerty@illinois.edu

Beth Conerty joined IBRL in December 2017 as the Business Development Manager.  She is working to grow relationships with industry and help bring projects into the IBRL facility.  Beth has [...]

Title: Assistant Director of Operations and Safety
Phone: (217) 333-4560
Email: mcastne2@illinois.edu

Marissa Nyland joined IBRL in January 2022 as a member of the fermentation team. In February of 2024 she was promoted to the Assistant Director of Operations & Safety to [...]

Title: Senior Business Development Coordinator
Phone: (217)300-7613
Email: arogers9@illinois.edu

Amy Rogers joined IBRL in March of 2022 as the Business Development Coordinator.  She is responsible for coordinating the accounting operations and business functions of IBRL. Amy has a Bachelor [...]

Title: Senior Pilot Plant Specialist
Phone: (217) 300-5781
Email: jsbrown6@illinois.edu

Jedi Brown joined the FSHN Pilot Processing Plant and Dining Services Team in Summer of 2017 as a Food Service Administrator III. He has spent the last 15 years training [...]

Title: Senior Pilot Plant Specialist
Phone: (217) 300-1120
Email: manningp@illinois.edu

Phillip Manning joined IBRL in January 2019 as a pilot plant specialist.  Phillip has a bachelors degree in Biological Sciences from Eastern Illinois University.  Previously, Phillip worked at the Archer [...]

Title: Senior Pilot Plant Specialist

Tom McKenna joined IBRL in March 2022. He has a Bachelor’s in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In August of 2023, Tom was promoted to [...]

Title: Pilot Plant Specialist

Bobby joined IBRL in June 2022 as a member of the Down Stream Processing Team. In August of 2023 he was promoted to Pilot Plant Specialist. He has a Bachelor’s [...]

Title: Pilot Plant Specialist

Kevin Wu was a senior at the University of Illinois, majoring in Food Science and Human Nutrition. He is concentrating within food science and is looking forward to pursuing a [...]

Title: Pilot Plant Specialist

Adam Davis joined IBRL in June 2023 as a member of the Downstream Processing Team. In the summer of 2024, Adam joined the Fermentation Team and was promoted to Pilot [...]

Title: Junior Pilot Plant Specialist

Hana Ostrander joined IBRL in October 2023 as a Junior Pilot Plant Specialist on the fermentation team. She has a Bachelor’s in Integrative Biology from the University of Illinois at [...]

Title: Junior Pilot Plant Specialist

Hope Park graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Illinois with a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Food Science. Upon graduating she interned at the ADM Modeling Center [...]

Title: Junior Pilot Plant Specialist

Nathan joined IBRL in September 2024 as a member of the Down Stream Processing Team. He has a Bachelor’s in Materials Science and Engineering and a Master’s in Agricultural and [...]

Title: Analytical Laboratory Specialist
Phone: (217) 333-4630
Email: srtakhar@illinois.edu

Suneet Takhar joined IBRL as a part-time lab manager in November 2019. She took up the full-time analytical lab specialist role in January 2022 which includes both technical and management [...]

Title: Analytical Lab Specialist

Nancy McCrone joined IBRL as a Bioprocessing Lab Specialist in June 2023. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BS in Crop Sciences and a concentration [...]

Title: Office Manager

Kerri joined IRBL in September of 2022 as an Office Support Specialist. She helps keep the day-to-day office operations running smoothly. Kerri has a B.A. in Political Science from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Over [...]

Title: Office Support Associate

Jeremy Sechan joined IBRL in October of 2024 as an Office Support Associate. They graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BA in English and a minor [...]

Title: Visiting Research Scientist
Phone: (217) 974-6928
Email: johnmfc@illinois.edu

Dr. Fuertez joined IBRL in April 2023. He is working to develop a quantitative test at the laboratory scale for determining how well corn is steeped and how that relates [...]

Title: Graduate Hourly
Major: Food Science and Human Nutrition