Yu Noda, a graduate student in the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering was awarded first prize for his poster, Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass by Sequential Combination of Organic Acid and Base, at the 2012 Bioenergy Symposium. The Symposium was held on February 29 and this year’s focus was Pathways to the Future – Short Rotation and Perennial Crops. The student poster competition was open to all graduate and undergraduate students who are currently working on research in the field of bioenergy and symposium attendees were asked to help judge the quality of the submitted posters. Noda’s poster was based on his PhD work at the EMS Energy Institute and the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering. His advisor is Dr. Chunshan Song and co-authors on the poster included Ungkana Wongsiriwan, Pattarapan Prassarakich, Yaw Yeboah, and Chunshan Song.