Michelle O'Malley

Michelle O'Malley is an American chemical engineer and professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.[1] She is known for her work studying the use of anaerobic microbes in developing inexpensive biofuels.[2] In 2015 she was named as one of MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators under 35,[3] and in 2016 she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.[4]

Professor

Michelle O'Malley

Ph.D.
Alma materCarnegie Mellon University
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Santa Barbara

Early life and education

O'Malley received a B.S. in chemical and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004.[5] She earned her doctor of philosophy in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware in 2009, working with Anne Robinson expressing membrane proteins in yeast.[6][7]

Career

O’Malley received a USDA-NIFA postdoctoral fellowship to perform biofuel research at MIT.[6][8] In 2012 she joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara as an assistant professor.[9] O'Malley's research focuses on discovering, isolating, and characterizing cellulose-digesting fungi in the guts of herbivores.[10][11] Enzymes from these fungi can be used to break down biomass (such as grasses) into simple sugars, which can be further fermented into biofuels.[12] Her research has been featured on NPR's Science Friday, as well as in Forbes and Mother Jones magazines, and she has been interviewed for two Science Career stories.[11][13][10][14][9]

Awards

Selected publications
  • Kevin V. Solomon, Charles H. Haitjema, John K. Henske, Sean P. Gilmore, Diego Borges-Rivera, Anna Lipzen, Heather M. Brewer, Samuel O. Purvine, Aaron T. Wright, Michael K. Theodorou, Igor V. Grigoriev, Aviv Regev, Dawn A. Thompson, Michelle A. O’Malley. "Early-branching gut fungi possess a large, comprehensive array of biomass-degrading enzymes." March 11, 2016. Science Vol. 351, Issue 6278, pp. 1192-1195
  • Charles H. Haitjema, Sean P. Gilmore, John K. Henske, Kevin V. Solomon, Randall de Groot, Alan Kuo, Stephen J. Mondo, Asaf A. Salamov, Kurt LaButti, Zhiying Zhao, Jennifer Chiniquy, Kerrie Barry, Heather M. Brewer, Samuel O. Purvine, Aaron T. Wright, Matthieu Hainaut, Brigitte Boxma, Theo van Alen, Johannes H. P. Hackstein, Bernard Henrissat, Scott E. Baker, Igor V. Grigoriev & Michelle A. O'Malley. "A parts list for fungal cellulosomes revealed by comparative genomics." 30 May 2017. Nature Microbiology volume 2, Article number: 17087
  • O'Malley; Michelle, Solomon; Kevin, Haitjema; Charles. "Novel Proteins from Anaerobic Fungi and Uses Thereof." U.S. Patent No. US20180362597A1

References
  1. "Michelle O'Malley". chemengr.ucsb.edu. 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  2. Manke, Kristin (2016-05-01). "What Biofuel Production Can Learn from the Zoo: Michelle A. O'Malley". U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  3. "Michelle O'Malley | Innovators Under 35". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  4. "Honoring Federally-Funded Scientists and Engineers at the Forefront of Research and Discovery". whitehouse.gov. 2016-05-05. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  5. "Alumni in the News: Professor Michelle O'Malley Receives Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award". www.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  6. "Michelle O'Malley". www.aiche.org. 2018-02-13. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  7. "Anne Skaja Robinson Lab: alumni". www.che.udel.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  8. "Converting plant waste into biofuels". Main. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  9. Kuo, Maggie (2016-09-16). "Getting the most out of your postdoc". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  10. Jula, Megan. "Scientists are learning exciting new things from shitholes". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  11. "A Dung Detective Hunts For Rare Microbes". Science Friday. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  12. O’Malley, Michelle A.; Thompson, Dawn A.; Regev, Aviv; Grigoriev, Igor V.; Theodorou, Michael K.; Wright, Aaron T.; Purvine, Samuel O.; Brewer, Heather M.; Lipzen, Anna (2016-03-11). "Early-branching gut fungi possess a large, comprehensive array of biomass-degrading enzymes". Science. 351 (6278): 1192–1195. Bibcode:2016Sci...351.1192S. doi:10.1126/science.aad1431. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 5098331. PMID 26912365.
  13. Conca, James. "Can Goat Poop Overpower Fossil Fuels?". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  14. Kuo, Maggie (2017-05-23). "Yes, you can have a life outside the lab". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  15. "May 13: Colburn Memorial Lecture". UDaily. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  16. "NSF Award Search: Award#1553721 - Caree: Designing Synthetic Anaerobic Consortia for Bioproduction". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  17. "2017 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards | Dreyfus Foundation". Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  18. "Professor Michelle O'Malley Receives Young Investigator Award from ACS Biochemical Technology Division". chemengr.ucsb.edu. 2018-11-13. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
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