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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 has a joint appointment managing the Food Science & Human Nutrition Pilot Processing Plant. He is responsible for all facility operations and [...]

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: 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: 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) 300-7519
Email: ewolfe@illinois.edu

Eric Wolfe joined IBRL in January 2018 as the pilot plant specialist. He is responsible for the startup and maintenance of the equipment as well as process support in the [...]

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: Pilot Plant Specialist

Thomas McKenna joined IBRL in March 2022. He has a Bachelor’s in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Previously, he worked in research and development at [...]

Title: Pilot Plant Specialist
Phone: (217) 333-4560
Email: mcastne2@illinois.edu

Marissa Nyland joined IBRL in January 2022 as a member of the fermentation team. In March of 2023, she was promoted to Pilot Plant Specialist. She has a Bachelor’s in [...]

Title: Junior Pilot Plant Specialist

Bobby joined IBRL in June 2022 as a member of the Down Stream Processing Team. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition from the [...]

Title: Junior 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: 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: Office Support Specialist

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: 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: Academic Hourly

Tyler Matuszczak is a recent graduate at the University Of Illinois with a degree in Brain and Cognitive Science and started at IBRL in 2023. Tyler’s curiosity in the sciences has [...]