Bioprocessing Research Group

 

BRT Student Profile: Mary Rasmussen

Noel Holton Brathwaite, Office of Biorenewables Programs
Story from CCUR Bulletin

 

After graduating from the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota with a degree in natural science, Mary Rasmussen knew that she wanted to continue her education, but she had yet to discover her true calling. She decided to travel to Nicaragua to help out at a village orphanage for a year, and was dismayed at the lack of clean drinking water.

This experience led her to Iowa State University and the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, where she is currently pursuing a dual doctorate degree in environmental engineering and biorenewable resources and technology.

Although her research doesn’t directly deal with improving the quality of drinking water, she is looking at ways to improve processing at corn dry-grind ethanol plants in order to reduce water and energy demands while increasing the value of the byproducts.

Working with Hans van Leeuwen, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, Anthony Pometto, professor of food science and human nutrition, and Samir Khanal, research assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, Rasmussen is investigating the culti-vation of fungi on the corn-to-ethanol co‑product thin stillage. The fungal biomass could serve as a dietary supplement and be co-fed with distillers dried grains (DDG) to hogs and chickens, which would help resolve the anticipated overproduction of DDG from the booming ethanol industry. Currently, DDGS, which are retrieved from whole stillage and require a lot of energy to dry, are primarily used to feed cattle. The research has been funded by the USDA CSREES through the Iowa Biotechnology Byproducts Consortium (BBC) and the Grow Iowa Values Fund.

Rasmussen’s passion for her research and its potential application is evident in her academic performance. Upon completing her Master’s degree in August 2006, she received a Research Excellence award, which honors students engaged in outstanding thesis and dissertation work. She has also received the top student award for earning the highest exam score among six ISU students and dozens of European students from 15 different countries who took part in the two-week BRT Intensive Exchange Program held in France in June 2007.