Scott Baker, PhD

Dr. Scott E. Baker leads the Functional and Systems Biology science area. His research interests include biotechnology, genomics, and genetics, especially as they relate to fungal metabolite production, enzyme secretion, and cell morphology. Baker has a joint appointment as a fungal biotechnology scientist with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) located in Emeryville, California. At JBEI, his research is focused on heterologous production of lignin active enzymes by fungi.
For more than a decade he has led and contributed to fungal genome projects, from single genomes, to resequencing of classical genetic mutant strains, to whole fungal genus sequencing efforts. In 2009 and 2010, with DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) staff members, he co-led the development and launch of the JGI Fungal Genomics Program.
Baker has served on the Board of Directors of Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB) as both a Director and President, and is a recent SIMB Fellow. He has contributed to nine journals as a reviewer, has been on the editorial board for the Industrial Biotechnology journal since 2011, and guest edited numerous special edition journals.

Research Interests


Biotechnology
Biofuels and chemicals
Microbiology
Mycology


Education


PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology, Northwestern University, 1996
BS in Biology, Oregon State University, 1992