Dr. Kenneth E. Hammel, research chemist at the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL), has been named recipient of a Fulbright Senior Research Award by the German-American Fulbright Program.
Hammel will be studying mechanisms of lignin-degrading fungi, focusing on newly discovered enzymes that have an important role in carbon cycling in forest soils. These enzymes also have potential applications in biotechnology for selective oxidations of chemicals.
Hammel earned his bachelor's degree in genetics and a Ph.D. in comparative biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.
In 1983, he was awarded a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) postdoctoral fellowship to do research in the microbiology department at Philipps-University in Marburg, Germany. From 1984 to 1986, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the FPL. Hammel is also an associate professor in the Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
