People shifts at LanzaTech, NREL rock industry as titans enter, leave the industry.

LanzaTech announced today that Prabhakar Nair has joined the company as Vice President of Business Development Asia Pacific. He joins chief executive Dr Jennifer Holmgren and chief scientist Dr Sean Simpson, who were both recently named at number 38 on the Biofuels Digest international “Top 100 People inBioenergy List”. From 1999 to 2005, Prabhakar Nair served as General Manager of UOP’s India operations, and he was most recently serving as marketing director for its Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit. ”Biofuel development in Asia could have a significant impact on agricultural commodity markets given that current technologies rely on food or farmed resources for feedstocks,” Dr Holmgren says.

Meanwhile, Al Darzins, a Principal Group Manager at the National Renewable Energy Labortatory and one of the fathers of the modern algal fuels revival, has accepted a senior management position at DuPont working out of their Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware. “The decision to leave NREL after re-establishing their microalgal research program is one of the most difficult things I have had to do in my career. Those little green critters hold a special part in my heart and I foresee great things coming out of the industry in the coming years,” Darzins said.