Bioenergy Feedstocks

KURT D. THELEN, Ph.D.      

Rm. 512 PSSB,

East Lansing, MI  48824

517-355-1232                                          

thelenk3@msu.edu

 Curriculum vitae

EDUCATION

 Ph.D. Crop & Soil Sciences, May 1994. Michigan State University, East Lansing. Dissertation:  Characterizing Herbicide Interactions with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.

 M.S. Crop & Soil Sciences, September 1987.  Michigan State University, East Lansing.  Thesis:  Velvetleaf Control and Off-Target Injury With Clomazone. 

 B.S. with High Honors, Crop & Soil Sciences, June 1985.  Michigan State University, East Lansing. 

EXPERIENCE

 July 1, 1999 to present:

Michigan State University, Department of Plant, Soil & Microbial Sciences, Assistant Professor (1999-2004); Associate Professor (2004 to 2010); Professor (2010 to present).  Cropping systems agronomist with an emphasis on bioenergy and developing crop systems that increase food, feed, and energy production while safeguarding soil, air, water, and biodiversity. Director, (2022) MSU Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, and teach CSS 467 BioEnergy Feedstock Production.

 October 1997 to June 30, 1999:

Michigan Department of Agriculture, Director, Environmental Stewardship Division.  Responsibilities include oversight of a $9.2 million budget, supervision of 40 MDA staff implementing agricultural-environmental programs including: Right to Farm; Intercounty Drains; Groundwater Stewardship; Spill Response; Pesticide State Management Plans; Groundwater Monitoring; Forestry; Migrant Labor Housing; Pesticide Container Recycling; Biosolids; and, Clean Sweeps.   Represent the Michigan Department of Agriculture on national and regional work groups on agricultural and environmental issues. Integrate agricultural and environmental research implications into state agriculture policy.  Coordinate numerous interagency committees, task forces, and work groups; and, work with the legislature on proposed legislation.

 September 1988 to December 1997:

Instructor (part-time), Michigan State University, Taught CSS 204, Corn & Soybean Production, and CSS 072 Advanced Crop Production in the MSU Department of Crop & Soil Sciences and the Institute of Agricultural Technology.  Course work focused on a systems approach to field crop production.

 June 1995 to October 1997:

Michigan Department of Agriculture, Manager, Office of Pollution Prevention.  Responsibilities include supervision of 15 MDA staff implementing agricultural-environmental programs.  Work with the agricultural industry on the development of agricultural best management practices for pesticide use, turfgrass management, forestry, livestock operations, and fertilizer use; represent the Michigan Department of Agriculture on national and regional work groups on great lakes issues, confined animal feeding operations, and pesticide disposal.  Solicit and procure federal grant dollars; conduct educational programs on environmental-agricultural issues;  advise departmental staff on agricultural-environmental issues including minor use crops, pesticide resistance, food safety, biosolids, and contamination remediation.

 July 1990 to June 1995:

Michigan Department of Agriculture, Program Manager, Right to Farm Program.  Coordinated a coalition of industry and agency leadership to develop the current Michigan Right to Farm Program.  Developed and implemented a complaint response protocol, negotiated an interagency memorandum of understanding, and coordinated the development of generally accepted agricultural and management practices.  Also, provided expert witness testimony on behalf of producers during civil litigation proceedings.

  September 1986 to July 1990:

Senior Soil Scientist, Department of Natural Resources, Groundwater Quality Division; and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Waste Management Division.  Responsibilities:  Evaluate and monitor the land application of biological wastes to agricultural and forest land.  Assisted in the procurement of interagency policy and drafted rule language amending environmental law.  Appointed Contract Administrator for 3-year cooperative study with the University of Notre Dame to evaluate the environmental effects of surface applied ice and dust control agents.  Assigned to Great Lakes States Governors' Task Force to evaluate the effect of wastewater applications to agricultural land.  Gave numerous presentations on environmental topics and participated in public hearings concerning environmental issues.

 June 1978 to January 1990:

Partner with parents in a 500 acre, 100 cow, crop and dairy farm.  Currently own and manage a 40 acre cash crop, and beef cattle hobby farm.

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

 American Society of Agronomy                                        

Crop Science Society of America                                    

Soil Science Society of America                      

List of Kurt Thelen Publications on Google Scholar

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Kim, S., B.E. Dale, B. Basso, K.D. Thelen, and C. Maravelias.  2023.  Supply chain system based on switchgrass grown on marginal land in Michigan. 2023.  Biofuels bioproducts & biorefining. doi.org/10.1002/bbb.2526.

Jayawardena, D., G.P. Robertson, G. Sanford, and K.D. Thelen.  2023.  Comparative productivity of six bioenergy cropping systems on marginal lands in the upper US Midwest.  Agron J. 115:2451-2468.  DOI: 10.1002/agj2.21416.

Kim, S., B.E. Dale, R. Martinez-Feia, B. Basso, K.D. Thelen, C. Maravelias, D. Landis, T.J. Lark, and G.P. Robertson. 2022. Global Warming Intensity of Biofuel Derived from Switchgrass Grown on Marginal Land in Michigan. Global Change Biology, Bioenergy.  2023;15:319-331.  DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.13024

Chandrasekar, M., L. Joshi, K. Krieg, S. Chipkar, E. Burke, D.J. Debrauske, K.D. Thelen, T.K. Sato, and R. Ong.  2021.  A high solids field to fuel research pipeline to identify interactions between feedstocks and biofuel production. Biotechnology for Biofuels. (2021) 14:179,  https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-021-02033-6.

 Kusmec A.; C.Yeh; N. AlKhalifah; M. Bohn; E. Buckler; D.Campbell; I. Ciampitti; D. Ertl; S.Flint-Garcia; J. Gardiner; M. Gore; C.Hirsch; S. Kaeppler; J.Knoll; J.Kolkman; G. Kruger; N.Lauter; C. Lawrence-Dill; E. Lee; N. de Leon; S. Liu; A. Lorence; B.McFarland; C. Poudyal; M.Romay; J. Schnable; R. Sekhon; K.Silverstein; M. Smith; N. Springer; K. Thelen; J. Wallace; R. Walls; R.Walton; T. Weldekidan; D.Willis; R.Wisser; P.Schnable. 2021. Data-driven identification of environmental variables influencing phenotypic plasticity to facilitate breeding for future climates: a case study involving grain yield of hybrid maize.  One Earth.  SSRN, 3684755.

 Rogers, A. J. Dunne, M.C. Romay, M. Bohn, E. Buckler, I. Ciampitti, J. Edwards, D. Ertl, S. Flint-Garcia, M. Gore, C. Graham, C. Hirsch, E. Hood, D. Hooker, J. Knoll, E. Lee, A. Lorenz, J. Lynch, J. McKay, S. Moose, S. Murray, R. Nelson, T. Rocheford, J. Schnable, P. Schnable, R. Sekhon, M. Singh, M. Smith, N. Springer, K. Thelen, P. Thomison, A. Thompson, M. Tuinstra, J. Wallace, R. Wisser, W. Xu, A.Gilmour, S. Kaeppler, J. Holland, and N. de Leon. 2020. The importance of dominance and genotype-by-environment interactions on grain yield variation in a large-scale public cooperative maize experiment. Genes|Genomes|Genetics, 2021. jkaa050, https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkaa050. 

Gelfand, Ilya, Stephen K. Hamilton, Alexandra N. Kravchenko, Randall D. Jackson, Kurt D. Thelen, and G. Philip Robertson. 2021. Data from:  Empirical Evidence for the Potential Climate Benefits of Decarbonizing Light Vehicle Transport in the U.S. with Bioenergy from Purpose-Grown Biomass with and without BECCS.  Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.44j0zpc8r.

Dale, Bruce, Stefano Bozzetto, Christian Couturier, C  Fabbri, Jorge Hilbert, Rebecca Ong, Tom Richard, Laura Rossi, Kurt Thelen, and Jeremy Woods.  2020.  The Potential for Expanding Sustainable Biogas Production in Selected Countries and Some Possible Impacts in Specific Countries.  Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining. DOI: 10.1002/bbb.2134.

McFarland, B.A., N. Alkalifah, M. Bohn, J. Bubert, E.S. Buckler, I. Ciampitti, J. Edwards, D. Ertl, J. Gage, C. Falcon, S. Flint-Garcia, M. Gore, C. Graham, C. Hirsch, J. Holland, E. Hood, D. Hooker, D. Jarquin, S. Kaeppler, J. Knoll, G. Kruger, N. Lauteedr, E. Lee, D. Lima, A. Lorenz, J. Lynch, J. Mckay, N. Miller, . Moose, S. Murray, R. Nelson, C. Poudyal, T. Rocheford, O. Rodriguez, M. Romay, J. Schnable, P. Schnable, B. Scully, R. Sekhon, K. Silverstein, M. Singh,, M. Smith, E. Spalding,N. Springer, K. Thelen, P. Thomison, M.Tuinstra, J.Wallace, R. Walls, D. Wills, R. Wisser., W. Xu, C. Yeh, and N. de Leon.  2020. Maize genomes to fields (G2F): field seasons: genotype, phenotype, climatic,soil, and inbred ear image datasets.  BMC Res Notes. 13:71. doi.org/10.1186/s13104-020-4922-8.

Kim, Seungdo; Zhang, Xuesong; Reddy, Ashwan; Dale, Bruce; Thelen, Kurt; Jones, Curtis ; Izaurralde, Roberto; Runge, Troy; Maravelias, Christos.  2020.  Carbon-Negative Biofuel Production.  Environ. Sci. Technol. 2020, 54, 17, 10797–1080.

Wang, Sichao, Gregg R. Sanford, G. Phillip Robertson, Randall D. Jackson, & Kurt D. Thelen. 2020. Perennial bioenergy crop yield and quality response to nitrogen fertilization.  Bioenergy Research. 13:157-166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-019-10072-z

Gelfand, Ilya, Stephen K. Hamilton, Alexandra N. Kravchenko, Randall D. Jackson, Kurt D. Thelen, and G. Philip Robertson. 2020. Empirical Evidence for the Potential Climate Benefits of Decarbonizing Light Vehicle Transport in the U.S. with Bioenergy from Purpose-Grown Biomass with and without BECCS. Environmental Science & Technology 54 (5): 2961–74.

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