4 minutes with… Stephen R. Morbley, Bookstore Technician, Government Publishing Office

Tell us about your company and it’s role in the Advanced Bioeconomy.

I work for the Government Publishing Office. I personally believe that waste management and energy from msw can be of interest here. The efforts to recycle paper can use some help.

Tell us about your role and what you are focused on in the next 12 months.

I am a bookstore technician. I have no position in policy making beyond use of the suggestion box.

What do you feel are the most important milestones the industry must achieve in the next 5 years?  

Renewable energy is inevitable. The use of bio fuels, developing new bio-energy feedstock and MSW into energy is eventual. It may take a “Pearl Harbor or Launch of Spudnik to get this nation to wake up and “smell the coffee” (And realize coffee grounds can be recycled into an energy source.)

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the Advanced Bioeconomy, what would you change? 

The energy world must realize that (iso)buthanol is a higher quality of energy source than ethanol. I have two. There should be an end to the fear (or shame)of the application MSW as a possible energy source. Here is a raw material whose plentiful status is a hazard rather than a benefit. Using is socially productive many ways.

Of all the reasons that influenced you to join the Advanced Bioeconomy industry, what single reason stands out for you as still being compelling and important to you?  

Its application is an idea whose time has come.

Where are you from?

I am a military dependent . I have no home. 

What was your undergraduate major in college, and where did you attend? Why did you choose that school and that pathway?

Political Science from the Univ of Oklahoma.

I chose it because it was legally home even though I did not grow up there.

Who do you consider your mentors – could be personal, business, or just people you have read about and admire. What have you learned from them?

Patrick Gruber of Gevo.

I enjoy Jim Lane’s articles .

I am watching and waiting for Sierra Energy to go IPO.

What’s the biggest lesson you ever learned during a period of adversity?  

What hobbies do you pursue, away from your work in the industry?

I am trying to take up fictional writing.

What are 3 books you’d want to have with you, if you were stranded on a desert island

The Year Long Bible for sure. Any other s are hard to say.

What books or articles are on your reading list right now, or you just completed and really enjoyed?  

What’s your favorite city or place to visit, for a holiday?

Norman/Oklahoma City. I have friends and relatives there.