Michael Pacheco has accepted the position of director of the National Bioenergy Center (NBC). The center was formed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in November 2000 and is based in the department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo.

GOLDEN, COLO., DEC. 12, 2002 -Michael Pacheco has accepted the position of

director of the National Bioenergy Center (NBC). The center was formed by
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in November 2000 and is based in the
department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo.
The virtual center is the focal point for technology development and
information about bioenergy in the United States, giving industry a one-stop
shopping place for access to world-class research and state-of-the-art
laboratory facilities at several federal agencies.

Pacheco will join NREL on January 6. He comes to the Lab from
Louisiana-Pacific Corp., where he has been manager of Oriented Strand Board
Technology and Product Quality for the past two years and a Corporate
Engineering Fellow for two years. Before joining Louisiana-Pacific, Pacheco
was vice president of Process Development at Energy BioSystems Corp., where
he led efforts to commercialize biocatalytic processes. Earlier, he held
numerous supervisory positions in R&D during 13 years at Amoco Corp. and at
Conoco Oil Co. Pacheco earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the
University of California at Berkeley, a bachelor of science in chemical
engineering from Clarkson University, and is a licensed professional
engineer.

Pacheco will provide strategic guidance, technical direction and management
to continue the NBC's leadership role in bioenergy research and development.
His responsibilities also include coordinating NREL's activities with
bioenergy research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and other
organizations. Pacheco will represent the NBC, NREL, ORNL, DOE, and the
interests of bioenergy programs to technical and industrial leads and other
U.S. and international stakeholders.

Pacheco is the bioenergy center's first full-time director. NREL's Associate
Director for Science and Technology Stan Bull has been acting director.

Bioenergy is energy derived from biomass, typically defined as all the
Earth's plant matter and its byproducts. It is considered to be one of the
most technologically promising sources of renewable energy in the United
States. Biomass can be converted into liquid fuels to replace or enhance
gasoline, into electricity, or into chemical and material biobased products
that currently are made from petroleum.

The National Bioenergy Center links DOE-funded biomass renewable energy
research programs with the resources and capabilities of the U.S.
departments of Agriculture and Interior, the Environmental Protection
Agency, the National Science Foundation and several other federal agencies,
DOE laboratories, universities, and the private sector. NREL's biomass
research program focuses on conversion of biomass feedstocks into
transportation fuels, biobased products, and electric power. ORNL's research
program focuses on sustainable feedstock technologies with industry and the
USDA.