Brian H. Davison

Brian H. Davison is a Corporate Fellow and Chief Scientist for Biotechnology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was the Chief Science Officer for the Center For Bioenergy Innovation (The Center for Bioenergy Innovation | CBI (ornl.gov) from 2017-2025. He was the Science Coordinator in the DOE Bioenergy Science Center from 2007 to 2017 responsible for integration. He is the PI for the ongoing DOE-BER project on “Solvent Disruption of Biomass and Biomembrane Structures in the Production of Biofuels and Bioproducts” (https://sfa-biofuels.ornl.gov/); this project expands the use of neutrons and modeling in understanding structure for biomass pretreatment and biomembrane stability. He is an Adjunct Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He was Director of Life Sciences Division at ORNL (2004-2005). 

In his forty years at ORNL, he has performed collaborative biotechnology research including bioconversion of renewable resources (ethanol, organic acids, solvents), technoeconomic analyses of biomass to products, microbial membrane inhibition, fundamentals of biomass pretreatment, , non-aqueous biocatalysis, systems analysis of microbes (cultivation and proteomics), biofiltration of VOCs, mixed cultures, immobilization of microbes and enzymes, metal biosorption, and extractive fermentations. The theme connecting his work is the interface of solid, liquid, and gas phases between biocatalysts and their environments. This has resulted in over 190 publications and 17 patents. He is passionate about asking the right questions for the science and mentoring – a trait he learned from his father (an engineer) and his mother (a journalist). He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering, from the University of Rochester.

He is a Fellow of American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE), The Society of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He received the 2006 C.D. Scott award from the Society of Industrial Microbiology. He led a multilab team which received an R&D100 Award in 1997 for “Production of Chemicals from Biologically Derived Succinic Acid,” a process ultimately licensed by BioAmber. He helped invent and develop an ethanol upgrading technology to produce renewable hydrocarbon fuels which was licensed by Vertimass, LLC (vertimass.com). He received the ORNL Technology Transfer award (2018) and Distinguished Inventor (2023) award for these and other efforts. He was the ORNL Science Communicator of 2010 for efforts in bioenergy and education, especially with the Creative Discovery Museum, he championed public bioenergy education reaching over 350,000 people (Bioenergy Resources Games & Issues | Biofuels).

 He co-chaired the 15th to 26th Symposia on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals; he edited the Proceedings in Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol., (1994 – 2005). He co-founded SBE’s “Commercializing Industrial Biotechnology” meeting in 2015 (https://www.aiche.org/sbe/conferences/commercializing-industrial-biotechnology/2025). He was organizer or participant in over 15 USDOE workshops and roadmap reports, including co-organizing the significant “Breaking the Barriers to Cellulosic Ethanol” Workshop in 2005 [DOE/SC-0095]. He served as Chief Scientist for the DOE-Biological and Environmental Research Genomic Sciences program (2009-2011). 

He served on the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE) (2020–2022), on the AIChE Society for Biological Engineering (SBE) Board since 2012, and as a trustee of the AIChE Foundation since 2023. He co-founded the ORNL LGBTQ+ group now called PRISM at ORNL in 1995 and serves as spokesperson and co-char. https://www.ornl.gov/news/biosciences-chief-scientist-corporate-fellow-reflects-trailblazing-lgbtqia-presence-ornl. He is the co-chair of the ORNL Educational Research Committee since formed in 2021 as the latest aspect of his commitment to mentoring.

He is chair of the ORNL Institutional Biosafety Committee since 2002. He is active in the UT-ORII Bredesen Center with the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He co-chairs the ORNL Educational Committee since its formation in 2021.