Dr. Gayle Bentley is a technology manager for the Conversion Program in the Bioenergy Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). She manages a portfolio of research and development projects that improve the production of renewable biofuels and biochemicals, and is involved in the Plastics Innovation Challenge. Prior to DOE, Gayle was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory where she engineered microorganisms to produce value-added chemicals, and was granted a Laboratory Directed Research and Development award to develop a novel genetic engineering technology. Gayle completed her doctorate in Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis from Washington University in St. Louis, and both a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and a master’s degree in public health from The University of Arizona.