Dr. Susan Rupp is a Certified Wildlife Biologist ® with 25 years of professional experience researching and evaluating wildlife-habitat relationships at local and landscape scales.  She was one of 8 recipients nationally for the Canon National Park Science Scholars Award in 2002 – a program jointly funded by Canon USA, the National Park Service, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science – which allowed her to complete her PhD in Wildlife Science at Texas Tech University while simultaneously working at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  She has served as a “Bioenergy Liaison” for the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies – the collective voice of North America’s state, provincial and territorial fish and wildlife agencies – to facilitate communications between wildlife and industry professionals regarding  risks, opportunities, and best management practices associated with sustainable bioenergy production.  She has also worked with two of the USDA-NIFA Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAPs) to produce best management guidelines for perennial biomass production in the Great Plains and landscape optimization models for sustainable bioenergy production using sweet sorghum and energy cane in the southeast while minimizing impacts to biodiversity.  Recently, Susan was nominated by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, and U.S. Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, to serve a 3-year term on the Biomass Research Development Technical Advisory Committee, which provides technical and fiscal oversight regarding the administration of the Biomass Research Development Initiative to the Biomass Research Development Board – an interagency collaborative established by the Biomass Research and Development Act of 2000 composed of senior decision makers from federal agencies and the White House.  Contact Susan.