Koonin joins Ceres board of directors

Ceres, a leading energy crop company based in California, announced a new addition to its board of directors. Steven E. Koonin, PhD, former BP Chief Scientist and U.S. undersecretary of Energy for Science, has joined the company’s board which will now have 12 members, including 10 independent directors as required by the rules of the Nasdaq Stock Market.
“It is a great pleasure to welcome a board member with such a valuable combination of experience from both the energy industry and public service to join our efforts to commercialize our pipeline of non-food, bioenergy products,” said Richard Hamilton, President and CEO of Ceres. “Continued high oil prices, despite the current economic uncertainty, underscore the unique value of liquid transportation fuels as well as the imperative to rapidly develop alternative feedstocks for biofuels.”
From May 2009 until November 2011, Koonin served as undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Energy. Prior to joining the government, he spent five years as chief scientist for BP, Plc, where he was instrumental in the analysis of renewable energies and alternate fuel sources. He also played a key role in establishing the Energy Biosciences Institute. Koonin was a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech from 1975-2006, and was the institute’s Provost for almost a decade. Today, Koonin serves as founding director of the Center for Urban Science and Progress. (August 22, 2012)