Paper industry exec Troy Runge to lead Wisconsin Bioenergy Initative

Madison, Wis. - Troy Runge, research director at Kimberly-Clark Corp., has been named director of the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative.

The initiative, a public-private partnership in bioenergy research, is based in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Growing our economy in a sustainable way is one of the great challenges of our time,” Runge said in a statement released by the university. “I believe accelerating the development of bioenergy to replace fossil fuel dependence is the key to meeting this challenge."

In addition to his post with the WBI, Runge will hold a faculty appointment in the UW-Madison Department of Biological Systems Engineering.

In announcing the appointment, university officials said Runge's combination of business skills and scientific experience would help him lead a wide range of activities that will be undertaken by the initiative. As director of the WBI, Runge will work with representatives from industry, state and federal agencies, and the university. He will succeed acting director Tim Donohue, who remains the full-time director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. In 2007, UW-Madison was selected by the Department of Energy to be the site of the center.

Runge earned a bachelor of science degree from UW-Stevens Point and Master's and Ph.D. degrees from the Institute of Paper Science and Technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

He will begin his tenure as director of the WBI on May 1.

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