• Office Address: 323-B Dougherty Engineering Building
• Phone: 865-974-2042
• E-mail: aragausk@utk.edu

Education

• PhD, University of Western Ontario: Physical Organic Chemistry, Advanced NMR. 1985
• BS, Honors, University of Western Ontario: Chemistry. 1980

Download Art Ragauskas' CV

Arthur Ragauskas held the first Fulbright Chair in Alternative Energy and is a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Academy of Wood Science and TAPPI.

In 2014, he assumed a Governor’s Chair for Biorefining based in University of Tennessee’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, with a complementary appointment in the UT Institute of Agriculture’s Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries and serves in the US Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate, Biosciences Division, at ORNL. His research program is directed at understanding and exploiting innovative sustainable bioresources. This multifaceted program is targeted to develop new and improved applications for nature’s premiere renewable biopolymers for biofuels, biopower, and bio-based materials and chemicals. Recently, his research team has begun to examine the upcycling of waste plastics.

His research program has been sponsored by NSF, USDA, DOE, GA Traditional Industry Program, a consortium of industry partners, and several fellowship programs which is summarized in 488 publications. His Fulbright sponsored activities at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden were focused on the forest biorefinery and new biofuel conversion technologies for lignocellulosics. Currently, Ragauskas manages a research group of graduate students, postdoctoral research fellows, a research scientist, and visiting scientists. He is the recipient of the 2014 TAPPI Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award, the ACS Affordable Green Chemistry award, 2017 AIChE Green Processing Award, 2017 Academia Distinguished Service Award, and his students and postdocs have won several awards, including the ACS graduate research award, ORNL UT-Battelle Award, and Supplementary Performance Award (ORNL).

Ragauskas is an Associate Editor for Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, Biofuels, BioEnergy Research, Industrial Biotechnology, Taiwan Journal of Forest Service, TAPPI J., Holzforschung, Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy, Journal of Petroleum Technology and Alternative Fuels, The Open Biotechnology Journal, Current Biotechnology, and J. Wood Chemistry and Technology. He is an editorial board member of Sustainability and Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. Ragauskas has served on several advisory boards and review panels including: Austrian Science Fund, European Commission Research Directorate, National Science Academy, J. Paul Getty Trust, NSF, USDA, DOE, ARAP-E, NSERC, TAPPI Research Management Committee, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Swedish VINN Excellence Center, Swedish Knowledge Foundation, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, ERA Chemistry, Swiss National Science Foundation, Finnish Academy of Science Norway Research Council, The Technology Foundation STW, Agence Nationale de la Recherche and Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research. Ragauskas has been an invited visiting professor at Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal; Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden; Royal Institute of Technology/ STFi, Stockholm, Sweden; and Southeast University, China, and South China University of Technology, China.

Awards and Recognitions

Selected list:

• 2022 RSC Environment, Sustainability, and Energy Division open award: Environment Prize
• 2022 Nominated to Sigma Xi
• 2021 Clarivate Analytics, Publons: Ragauskas named one of the world's most highly cited researchers in his field
• 2021 AD Scientific Index: Highly Cited Researchers
• 2019 AIChE Chase Award
• 2019 Joint Faculty Award in Science and Technology, UT-Battelle
• 2019 Nominated to Sigma Xi
• 2018 Clarivate Analytics, Publons: Ragauskas named one of the world's most highly cited researchers in his field
• 2018 Fellow Royal Society of Chemistry
• 2017 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2017 Green Process Engineering American Institute of Chemical Engineers Award
• 2017 University of California, Bourns College of Engineering – Center for Environmental Research and Technology, Distinguished Service Award
• 2014 TAPPI Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award
• 2014 ACS Award for Affordable Green Chemistry
• 2013 ORNL Visiting Fellow
• 2012 Elected American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow
• 2012 Elected to Academy Board of  International Academy of Wood Science
• 2008-2009 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Alternative Energy
• 2008 Recipient of 2008 William H. Aiken Research Prize

• Biorefining
• Nanolignocellulosics
• Green Chemistry
• BioFuels
• Bio-Based Materials & Chemicals
• BioComposites
• BioPower
• Fiber Modification
• Pulping/Bleaching
• Chemistry of Natural Biopolymers including Cellulose, Hemicellulose, and Lignin
• Polysaccharides
• Organic/Carbohydrate Chemistry

Publications

This is a partial list of his most recent publications. View his Google Scholar page for a complete list of publications.

• Chemical and Morphological Structure of Transgenic Switchgrass Organosolv Lignin Extracted by Ethanol, Tetrahydrofuran, and γ-Valerolactone Pretreatments. Liang, Luna; Wang, Yun-Yan; Bhagia, Samarthya ; Sethuraman, Vaidyanathan ; Yang, Zhi ; Meng, Xianzhi ; Bryant, Nathan; Petridis, Loukas ; Smith, Jeremy C. ; Pingali, Sai Venkatesh; Gallego, Nidia C.; Pu, Yunqiao Pu; Evans, Barbara R; O’Neill, Hugh, M.; Davison, Brian, H.;  Ragauskas, Arthur, J. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2022), 10(28), 9041-9052.
• Coal polymer composites prepared by fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing. Zhang, Shuyang; Rehman, Muhammad Zia ur; Bhagia, Samarthya; Meng, Xianzhi; Meyer, Harry M. iii; Wang, Hsin; Koehler, Michael R.; Akhtar, Kalsoom; Harper, David P.; Ragauskas, Arthur J. Journal of Materials Science (2022), 57(22), 10141-10152. 
• Preparation and characterization of aminated co-solvent enhanced lignocellulosic fractionation lignin as a renewable building block for the synthesis of non-isocyanate polyurethanes. Meng, Xianzhi; Zhang, Shuyang; Scheidemantle, Brent; Wang, Yun-yan; Pu, Yunqiao; Wyman, Charles E.; Cai, Charles M.; Ragauskas, Arthur J. Industrial Crops and Products (2022), 178, 114579. 
• Assessing the availability of two bamboo species for fermentable sugars by alkaline hydrogen peroxide pretreatment. Zhan, Yunni; Cheng, Jinyuan; Liu, Xuze; Huang, Chen; Wang, Jia; Han, Shanming; Fang, Guigan; Meng, Xianzhi; Ragauskas, Arthur J. Bioresource Technology (2022), 349, 126854. 
• Preparation, Properties, and Application of Lignocellulosic-Based Fluorescent Carbon Dots. Song, Xueping; Zhao, Siyu; Xu, Ying; Chen, Xinrui; Wang, Shuangfei; Zhao, Peitao; Pu, Yunqiao; Ragauskas, Arthur J. ChemSusChem (2022), 15(8), e202102486. 
• Cosolvent enhanced lignocellulosic fractionation tailoring lignin chemistry and enhancing lignin bioconversion. Zhao, Zhi-Min; Meng, Xianzhi; Scheidemantle, Brent; Pu, Yunqiao; Liu, Zhi-Hua; Li, Bing-Zhi; Wyman, Charles E.; Cai, Charles M.; Ragauskas, Arthur J. Bioresource Technology (2022), 347, 126367 
• Opportunities and challenges for flow-through hydrothermal pretreatment in advanced biorefineries. Meng, Xianzhi; Yoo, Chang Geun; Pu, Yunqiao; Ragauskas, Arthur J.Bioresource Technology (2022), 343, 126061. 
• Tree-​inspired lignin microrods-​based composite heterogeneous nanochannels for ion transport and osmotic energy harvesting. Cheng, Peng; Chen, Sheng; Li, Xin; Xu, Yanglei; Xu, Feng; Ragauskas, Arthur J. Energy Conversion and Management (2022), 255, 115321. 
• Enhancing Lignin Dispersion and Bioconversion by Eliminating Thermal Sterilization. Zhao, Zhi-Min; Meng, Xianzhi; Senanayake, Manjula; Pingali, Sai Venkatesh; Pu, Yunqiao; Li, Mi; Ma, Litong; Xu, Jifei; Ragauskas, Arthur J. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2022),  10(10), 3245-3254. 
• Nanoscale FTIR and Mechanical Mapping of Plant Cell Walls for Understanding Biomass Deconstruction. Bhagia, Samarthya; Durkovic, Jaroslav; Lagana, Rastislav; Kardosova, Monika; Kacik, Frantisek; Cernescu, Adrian; Schafer, Philip; Yoo, Chang Geun; Ragauskas, Arthur J. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2022), 10(9), 3016-3026. 
• Strikingly high amount of tricin-lignin observed from vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) aerial roots.  Li, Mi; Pu, Yunqiao; Meng, Xianzhi; Chen, Fang; Dixon, Richard A.; Ragauskas, Arthur J. Green Chemistry (2022), 24(1), 259-270. 
• Cosolvent enhanced lignocellulosic fractionation tailoring lignin chemistry and enhancing lignin bioconversion. Zhao, Zhi-Min; Meng, Xianzhi; Scheidemantle, Brent; Pu, Yunqiao; Liu, Zhi-Hua; Li, Bing-Zhi; Wyman, Charles E.; Cai, Charles M.; Ragauskas, Arthur J. Bioresource Technology (2022),  347, 126367.   
• Plastic waste upcycling toward a circular economy. Zhao, Xianhui; Korey, Matthew; Li, Kai; Copenhaver, Katie; Tekinalp, Halil; Celik, Serdar; Kalaitzidou, Kyriaki; Ruan, Roger; Ragauskas, Arthur J.; Ozcan, Soydan. (2021) Chemical Engineering Journal (2022), 428, 131928. 
• New Technologies are Needed to Improve the Recycling and Upcycling of Waste Plastics Ragauskas AJ, Huber GW, Wang J, Guss A, O'Neill HM, Lin CSK, Wang Y, Wurm FR, Meng X. ChemSusChem (2021) 14(19):3982-3984.  
• Tensile properties of 3D-printed wood-filled PLA materials using poplar trees. Bhagia S, Lowden RR, Erdman D, Rodriguez M, Haga BA, Solano IRM, Gallego NC, Pu Y, Muchero W, Kunc V Applied Materials Today 21, 100832 (2020). 
• Transforming biorefinery designs with "Plug-​In Processes of Lignin" to enable economic waste valorization.  Liu, Zhi-Hua; Hao, Naijia; Wang, Yun-Yan; Dou, Chang; Lin, Furong; Shen, Rongchun; Bura, Renata; Hodge, David B.; Dale, Bruce E.; Ragauskas, Arthur J.; Bin, Yang; Yuan, Joshua, S. Nature Communications (2021), 12(1), 3912.   
• Promoting Diels-​Alder reactions to produce bio-​BTX: Co-​aromatization of textile waste and plastic waste over USY zeolite.  Wang, Jia; Jiang, Jianchun; Ding, Jinhua; Wang, Xiaobo; Sun, Yunjuan; Ruan, Roger; Ragauskas, Arthur J.; Ok, Yong Sik; Tsang, Daniel C. W. Journal of Cleaner Production (2021), 314, 127966. 
• Elucidating the mechanisms of enhanced lignin bioconversion by an alkali sterilization strategy. Zhao, Zhi-Min; Zhang, Shuyang; Meng, Xianzhi; Pu, Yunqiao; Liu, Zhi-Hua; Ledford, William K.; Kilbey, S. Michael II; Li, Bing-Zhi; Ragauskas, Arthur J. Green Chemistry (2021), 23(12), 4697-4709.

Book Chapters

• Epoxy as filler or matrix for polymer composites. Xianhui Zhao, Shun Lu, Wei Li, Shuyang Zhang, Kai Li, Kashif Nawaz, Peter Wang, Guang Yang, Arthur Ragauskas, Soydan Ozcan and Erin Webb. In “Epoxy-Based Composites,” Intech Open, ISBN 978-1-80355-160-9. Ed.: Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai (2022).
• Emerging Technologies for Biorefineries, Biofuels, and Value-Added Commodities, Springer Nature Switzerland AG Eds. Zhi-Hua Liu, Art Ragauskas (2021)
  • Lignin Valorization in Biorefineries Through Integrated Fractionation, Advanced Characterization, and Fermentation Intensification Strategies. Zhi-Min Zhao, Yan Chen, Xianzhi Meng, Siying Zhang, Jingya Wang, Zhi-Hua Liu, and Arthur J. Ragauskas, 337-362.
• Lignin Utilization Strategies from Processing to Applications. ACS Symposium Series, Volume 1377, Eds. C. Yoo and A. Ragauskas (2021)
  • Opportunities and Challenges of Lignin Utilization. Yoo, Chang Geun; Ragauskas, Arthur J. ACS Symposium Series (2021), 1377
  • Lignin Utilization Strategies: From Processing to Applications. Yoo Chang, Geun; Ragauskas, Arthur
  • Recent Advances in Synthesis and Application of Lignin Nanoparticles. Meng, Xianzhi, Poonia; Mandeep; Yoo Chang Geun; Ragauskas, Arthur J.

Patents

• Sannigrahi, P.; Ragauskas, A.J.; Miller, S. J. Chlorine dioxide treatment of biomass feedstock useful in production of biofuel ethanol. U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. (2012), US 20120040413 A1 20120216; PCT Int. Appl. (2012), WO 2012021725 A1 20120216.
• Ziemer, C.J.; Arcidiacono, S.; Ragauskas, A.; Morrison, M., Novel fibro-biotic bacterium isolate. U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. (2011), US 20110076356 A1 Application: US 2009-569572 20090929. Priority: US 2009-569572 20090929.
• Deng, Y.; Yoon, S.Y.; Ragauskas, A.; White, D., Methods and Compositions for Papermaking. U.S. Pat. 7,964,063 B2 (2011).
• Ragauskas, Arthur J.; Kim, Dong Ho., Metal Substituted Xerogels for Improved Peroxide Bleaching of Kraft Pulps. U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. (2003), CODEN: USXXCO US 2003019596 A1 20030130 CAN 138:108518 AN 2003:77170.
• Chakar, F.S; Ragauskas, A.J., Methods for Reducing Fluorescence in Paper-Containing Samples. Patent # 6,294,047 B1 & 6,387,211 B1 (2001).