Prof. Debra Mohnen Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Georgia, USA

Debra Mohnen received a B.A. in biology from Lawrence University, Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in plant biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign. Her Ph.D. research was conducted at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, Switzerland. Dr. Mohnen is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a faculty... read moremember of the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. She is also an adjunct faculty at the Department of Plant Biology and Focus Area Lead in Biomass Formation and Modification in the DOE-funded BioEnergy Science Center (BESC). Her research centers on the biosynthesis, function and structure of plant cell wall polysaccharides with an emphasis on pectin and pectin-containing glycopolymers. Her research is also targeted at understanding how plant cell wall structure can be modified to improve the efficiency of conversion of plant wall biomass to biofuels and biomaterials.