Dr. Katy Christiansen is the Biosciences Strategic Programs Development and Implementation manager at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. In this role, Katy leads program development activities and strategic planning for the biosciences area at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. She develops and implements program development processes, including building new multi-institutional research programs. Her efforts resulted in direct funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) that established the multimillion dollar Agile BioFoundry (ABF) and Trial Ecosystem Advancement for Microbiome Science (TEAMS) programs. Katy is also responsible for the Biosciences Strategic Plan (BSP), a 10-year scientific strategic plan that describes biosciences research aspirations in energy, environment, health, biomanufacturing, and technology development. Katy represents Berkeley Lab as the laboratory relationship manager to DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), ensuring effective management of BETO-funded projects at the lab and providing strategic input on BETO’s activities.

Katy received her Ph.D. in plant science from Indiana University Bloomington and pursued postdoctoral research in the plant systems biology group at the Joint BioEnergy Institute at Berkeley Lab. Katy was a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at DOE in the Bioenergy Technologies Office, where she served as a technical adviser and assisted in development of funding opportunities.