4 minutes with… Harry Cullinan, Director of Technology Deployment, Auburn University

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

We conduct R&D in the areas of biofuels and bioproducts and facilitate deployment of resulting technologies in the pulp and paper industry.

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

My role is to bridge the gap between basic R&D and ultimate commercialization of biorefining technologies with particular emphasis on the raw material base and existing assets of the US pulp and paper industry. Current emphasis is on waste woody biomass deconstruction for the production of a range of high value products from the resulting sugars, lignin and nanocellulose.

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

Our vision is $50 billion in additional revenue for the pulp and paper sector from value added bioproducts by 2030. We need to see at least $ 5 billion of this over the next 5 years.

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

The technologies are coming along just fine. The problem is insufficient spread between raw material cost and product value. Our solution is to focus on waste woody biomass (which we have more than enough of to reach $50 billion) and products with much higher value than, say, ethanol.

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?  

The obvious potential of waste woody biomass to produce significant incremental value and the potential of existing pulp and paper mills to support technologies to create this value.

Where are you from? 

Long Island, New York

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

Chemical Engineering, University of Detroit. The degree afforded many opportunities and the university provide coop education.

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?

My PhD supervisor, Herb Toor (Carnegie Mellon) showed me the power of imagination and courage. My boss at IPC(Harry Posner) taught me the necessity of quick and disciplined thinking. My dad and a host of Australians demonstrated the utility and joy of a quick wit.

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

Adversity is many times more effective for growth than success.

Success can never show you how to hang in there.

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

Golf, swimming and reading.

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

The Bible King James Version

The Complete Works of William Shakspeare

The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

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

Mind and Cosmos, Thomas Nagel

An Anxious Age, Joseph Bottom

Philosophy Between the Lines, Arthur Melzer

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

New York City, only slightly ahead of Melbourne, Australia.