MSc in Agricultural and Biosystem Engineering (Fulbright Fellow)
Current position: Director for the Development of Sustainable Opportunities at the National Ministry of Social Development, Argentina
Research focus: feasibility analysis with local government and multinational corporations for the application of the bioequality concept
Sergio explored the viability of renewable energies as a sustainable business model whilst studying for his Master’s degree in Argentina. After his MSc in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Washington State University, he also studied Logistics and Supply Chain Management (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT) and Project Management (Washington State University, WSU). Combining his business and science backgrounds, he develops sustainable solutions using technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, composting, and anaerobic digestion.
CV as submitted for the Green Talents award (2014):
Washington State University, United States of America
Research focus: understanding the municipal solid waste business and its possible combination with renewable energy technologies to create sustainable and innovative solutions
Molecular biologist Sergio Baravalle is combining multiple disciplines to achieve scientific solutions to business problems. Together with a team of researchers, he is contributing to making sustainable ideas economically viable.
Sergio demonstrates an exceptionally multi-disciplinary approach to his research in his quest for new and innovative solutions. With a molecular biologist background, he has worked as a business developer for multinational companies. Sergio explored the viability of renewable energies as a sustainable business model whilst studying for his MBA in Argentina. Currently enrolled in a Master’s course in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Washington State University (WSU), he is also pursuing Graduate Certificates in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (MIT) as well as Project Management (WSU). “My multi-disciplinary background allows me to analyse sustainability as a complex system”, he says. Currently, his search for sustainable solutions has involved him in two research projects.
The first project, which Sergio is carrying out with an interdisciplinary team of scientists at WSU, aims to provide sustainable solutions to the business needs of Municipal Solid Waste management in Washington. Having identified the most pressing business concerns of the sector, the project hopes “to provide sustainable solutions based on technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, composting and anaerobic digestion”. It will also “include logistics and chain supply analysis to develop complex solutions combining business and science” adds Sergio. In his other current project, Sergio is exploring how to make the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass (plant dry matter) more efficient by investigating the possibility of combining the processes of “pre-treatment” and sugar release into a single step. This work is done in collaboration with two labs at the University of Buenos Aires Argentina - the Lab of Insect Physiology and Molecular Biology Lab.
The jury was enthusiastic about Sergio’s combination of multiple disciplines to advance cutting-edge scientific experiments. His broad experience sets him in exceptionally good stead to profit from the Green Talents forum and to continue bringing real progress to sustainable waste management and energy solutions.
