iSEE Congress 2025:

A Circular Bioeconomy

as a Path to Net-Zero

September 25-26, 2025

Illini Union, Urbana, IL

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

#iSEECongress2025

About the Congress

The topic for the 2025 iSEE Congress is “A Circular Bioeconomy as a Path to Net-Zero.” A circular bioeconomy puts recycling and regeneration at the center of how we grow and process food and consumer products. The aim is to lower the energy and water-use intensity of these processes and reduce the use of fossil fuels and synthetic chemicals by using technological and biological resources to restore and regenerate natural systems. We envision each panel covering a different facet of circularity relevant to society at large—food systems, energy systems, plastics, and carbon capture and sequestration. The panelists will highlight the current state of the research, technology, and policy in these areas while showcasing current progress and ongoing activities bringing each system closer to net-zero carbon.

Organizers

This year’s organizing committee includes Gal Hochman, Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics; Jeremy Guest, Levenick Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Kevin O’Brien, Director of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center and Founding Director of the Prairie Research Institute Net-Zero Center of Excellence; Yong-Su Jin, Professor of Food Microbiology; Andrew Leakey, Professor of Plant Biology; Roland Cusick, Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering ; Vijay Singh, Distinguished Professor of Bioprocessing and Director of the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory; and Becca Taylor, Assistant Professor of Agricultural & Consumer Economics.

Conference Agenda

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 25 (DAY 1):

5:00 p.m. — Welcome and Introduction to the iSEE Congress

5:10 p.m. — Keynote Address and Q&A

6:30 p.m. — Dinner (by invitation) or Public Reception

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 26 (DAY 2):

8:00 a.m. — Welcome and Opening Remarks

Madhu Khanna

Alvin H. Baum Family Chair & Director, iSEE

Her departmental webpage >>>

Chancellor/VCRI

Luis F. Rodríguez

Associate Director for Education & Outreach, iSEE

His departmental webpage >>>

8:20 a.m. — Panel 1: Zero Waste Food Systems as a Mechanism to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Focus Statement: Capturing and processing or eliminating organic waste streams has the potential to reduce massive quantities of greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding the degradation of materials in the environment. Further it avoids wasteful use of resources via production and loss.

9:45 a.m. — Health Break

10:00 a.m. — Panel 2: Decarbonizing Energy Systems: Technology and Policy Pathways

Focus Statement: Extraction, processing, distribution, and use of fossil fuels has left a massive carbon footprint upon our environment. Shifting our feedstocks, practices, and uses can change this paradigm for the benefit of our society and environment.

11:45 a.m. — Buffet Lunch with 2nd Keynote Speaker

1:15 p.m. — Panel 3: Envisioning a Circular Economy in Plastics and Transition to Biomaterials and Biochemicals

Focus Statement: The ubiquitous nature of plastics in today’s economy and their persistence throughout our environments makes them an obvious target for reduction and removal. How does policy and practice lead to externalities linked to today’s plastics? Can alternative feedstocks replace fossil fuels in the plastic economy?

2:45 p.m. — Panel 4: Carbon Reduction Strategies for a Net Zero Economy

Focus Statement: Addressing climate change may be best addressed by focusing on the most demonstrable symptom of the problem — carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Can they be removed and stored permanently? Where can they be stored? Or can excess greenhouse gasses be captured and used to create other products?

4:15 p.m. — Health Break

4:30 p.m. — Reviewing Lessons with Our Rapporteurs

Session moderators and note takers are invited to collect ideas from sessions and summarize ideas for discussion.