Adventures at the intersection of science, engineering, politics, and ethics
John Sheehan
Program Director, Biofuels and the Global Environment
University of Minnesota
As the Institute on the Environment’s scientific program coordinator for biofuels
and the global environment, John Sheehan’s work focuses on the multifaceted
question of biofuels and their sustainability as a future energy source. He is studying
the direct and indirect consequences of biofuels production on land use around the
world, along with other social, political and environmental aspects of biofuels.
Sheehan joined the University of Minnesota in February 2009, after spending nearly
two decades working on biofuels. For 17 years, he worked as a project manager and
analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. Initially
trained as a biochemical engineer, he quickly developed an interest and expertise in
the life-cycle assessment of biofuels. His published works include groundbreaking
studies on the impacts of biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol technology.
While at NREL, Sheehan also led research on the production and conversion of algae
to biofuels, a technology now receiving a great deal of attention. His 1998 report
summarizing the Department of Energy’s algae research is widely cited. In 2007 and
2008, Sheehan was the vice president of strategic planning and sustainable
development at LiveFuels, Inc., an algae startup company in Menlo Park, Calif.
Prior to NREL, Sheehan worked as a biochemical engineer at Merck Pharmaceutical,
W.R. Grace & Co, and Radian Corporation. He grew up in Philadelphia, but has spent
most of the past two decades in Colorado, where he and his wife raised their two
sons. He is passionate about education, having spent 12 years as a three-timeselected member of a local Colorado school board. He is an amateur philosopher as
well—an interest he indulges in as part of his sustainability studies.