4 minutes with…Peter Keeling, Innovation and Industry Collaboration Director, Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (Iowa State)

Tell us about your organization and it’s role in the advanced bioeconomy.

CBiRC was founded in 2008 with funding from NSF, creating an Engineering Research Center focused on advanced manufacturing for sustainable biobased chemicals. The R&D program creates a multi-year, interdisciplinary, multi-institutional center that joins academia, industry and government in partnership to produce transformational engineered systems.

Tell us about your role and what you are focused on in the next 12 months.

I have multiple roles in CBiRC:
(i) to recruit, retain and engage a diverse portfolio of member companies that network with the center, forming partnerships with academia, students and other industry members.
(ii) to build and develop a vibrant innovation program and encourage entrepreneurship through mentoring. These efforts encompass a teaching role as well as techno-commercial mentoring role that is formulated around the Business Model Canvas and NSF I-Corps program.
(iii) to provide strategic guidance to the center and provide tech-savvy insights into the real-world potential of various types of knowhow emerging from the center.
(iv) to work with the center to identify pathways and opportunities towards sustainability that go beyond the 10 years of funding from NSF.

What do you feel are the most important milestones the industry must achieve in the next 5 years?

1. Continued growth of the Biobased Chemicals sector with more startups & early stage companies showing successes in the marketplace & partnering with larger entities.
2. Gradual financial solidity & independence of Biobased Chemicals companies.
3. Few Biobased Chemicals companies becoming casualties in terms of going out of business.

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the Advanced Bioeconomy, what would you change?

Ability of the US to compete in financial terms to attract smaller companies

Where are you from? 

I was born and raised in Yorkshire, England where I learned to appreciate the great outdoors and developed a life-long interest in biorenewables and sustainability.

What was your undergraduate major in college, and where did you attend? Why did you choose that school and that pathway? 

My undergraduate degree was Biology and doctoral research in Biochemistry. I was lucky to engage with industry so early in my career and be able to complete my PhD work in industry. As a post-doctoral worker I combined biology with biochemistry through the application of genetics and biotechnology.

Who do you consider your mentors. What have you learned from them?

Too many to mention, but I have been lucky to have so many great mentors over the years. Some were direct supervisors, but many were just industry or academic colleagues traveling down parallel career paths.

What’s the biggest lesson you ever learned during a period of adversity?

That adversity is an opportunity in disguise.

What hobbies do you pursue, away from your work in the industry? 

Hiking, Badminton, Photography, Cycling and Family.

What’s your favorite city or place to visit, for a holiday?

Mountains