News

The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (NCERC at SIUE) has welcomed Visiting Research Fellow Brad Smith.

Funded by the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, the nine-month Fellowship Program is intended to provide training and hands-on experience to prepare the next generation of engineers and scientists for work in mid-to high-skill jobs in the bioeconomy. 

A Smithton native, Smith earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from SIUE in May 2019. He worked as an NCERC extra help operator and as a lead operating technician, during a 2019 contractual research project. 

“NCERC benefits from mentoring recent college graduates, who have specialized areas of study in instrumentation, electronics, process control and mechanical engineering,” said NCERC Executive Director John Caupert. “In the role of engineering fellow, Brad will serve under the guidance of two supervisors. A faculty mentor/advisor will work with him to connect their industrial research to academic theory, and an NCERC research engineer will oversee his daily projects and provide professional mentorship. This joint supervisory model ensures the connection of theory to practice, and builds upon the Fellow’s academic degree through applied, hands-on learning in an industrial setting.”

During the Fellowship, Smith will gain experience through assignments in process control and programming, project design and implementation, instrumentation and electronics coding and maintenance, revising and developing standard operating procedures, troubleshooting and maintenance, data collection, analysis, reporting, and more. 

 “I’m hoping to familiarize myself with the PCS 7 (a distributed control system), so I can handle whatever it throws at me,” Smith said. “I’m also looking to gain some leadership experience once more trials start up again, and hopefully when the Fellowship is over, I will have the opportunity to stay on full-time at NCERC.”

Upon completion of the Fellowship Program, graduates will be qualified to work in the biofuels, pharmaceuticals, refining, brewing and chemical industries.     

“NCERC extends a special thank you to the Illinois Corn Marketing Board for providing the funding necessary to conduct the Engineering Fellowship program,” said Caupert.

About the NCERC
The NCERC is a nationally recognized research center dedicated to the development and commercialization of biofuels, specialty chemicals and other renewable compounds. The Center’s fully functional dry grind pilot plant and laboratories are equipped with advanced biofuels capabilities including corn fractionation, pretreatment, and a fermentation suite with 5, 30, 150 and 1500L scale-up. Facilities are staffed by industry veterans with more than 100 years of collective experience in fermentation and biofuels production. This knowledgeable team has the flexibility and expertise to design and carry out projects in any region of the advanced biofuels or specialty chemicals space.  For more information contact Claire Weinzierl at cweinzierl@ethanolresearch.com, or visit www.ethanolresearch.com.

Photo: The NCERC at SIUE Visiting Research Fellow Brad Smith.