Doctoral Dissertation Research: Plant-Based Biotechnologies and Petrochemical Security

如果我们停止使用石油，塑料瓶、合成橡胶甚至牙膏将由什么制成呢？随着对化石燃料的可得性和安全性的日益关注，学术界和公众都把许多注意力放在寻找石油基燃料的替代品上。然而，人们很少注意寻找石油基化学品的替代品，这些化学品用于制造大量的日常用品。在过去的十年里，一些科学家一直致力于开发一种石油基化学物质的替代品：从甘蔗中提取的化学物质。这是一类生物技术的一个例子，其目的是利用农作物来制造各种各样的产品，即使在十年前也是不可想象的。尽管如此，这些以植物为基础的替代材料是否比以石油为基础的原始材料更具社会、环境和经济可行性，问题仍然存在。随着美国和其他国家继续在这类生物技术和替代制造研究上投入数百万美元，了解哪些社会、历史和经济因素将使植物性石油替代品变得可行，这将是至关重要的。凯瑟琳·乌尔里希在莱斯大学的安德里亚·巴列斯特罗博士的指导下，将探索后石油时代生物技术发展的社会、经济和历史维度。研究将在巴西的圣保罗进行，在过去的十年中，那里已经为基于甘蔗的产品开发分配了前所未有的科学资金。这也是一个特别值得注意的研究环境，因为巴西是世界上最大的甘蔗生产国，而这个国家最初是建立在16世纪开始的以奴隶为基础的甘蔗工业上的。调查人员将研究圣保罗的甘蔗科学家、国家资助机构和糖厂工人如何构思、开发和实施甘蔗作为石油替代品。研究人员将评估这些参与者对巴西甘蔗的历史、社会、经济和环境特征的理解程度，这些特征对甘蔗基石油替代品的可行性产生了积极或消极的影响。调查人员将对甘蔗科学家、资助机构和糖厂工人进行参与性观察、访谈、焦点小组和调查。这项研究将增进人们对生物技术、制造业和农业如何在21世纪以新的方式融合在一起的理解。这项研究的结果将对未来围绕植物性制造实践制定社会、经济和环境负责任的政策至关重要。此外，这项研究将有助于改善社会科学家和生物学家之间的跨学科合作，以更好地理解和向公众传播新生物技术的社会影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

What would plastic bottles, synthetic rubber, and even toothpaste be made of if we stopped using petroleum? With mounting concern over the availability and security of fossil fuels, much scholarly and public attention has been paid to finding alternatives for petroleum-based fuels. However, less attention has been paid to finding alternatives for petroleum-based chemicals, used to manufacture of a vast array of everyday items. In the past decade, some scientists have worked to develop an alternative to petroleum-based chemicals: the same chemicals made from sugarcane. This is one example of a category of biotechnologies aiming to utilize crops to manufacture a wide range of products not imaginable even only a decade ago. Nonetheless, questions remain as to whether these plant-based alternative materials are more socially, environmentally, and economically viable than the petroleum-based originals. As the United States and other countries continue to invest millions of dollars into this kind of biotechnology and alternative manufacturing research, it will be critical to understand what social, historical, and economic factors would make plant-based petroleum replacements feasible. Kathleen Ulrich, under the supervision of Dr. Andrea Ballestero of Rice University, will explore the social, economic, and historical dimensions of post-petroleum biotechnological development. Research will be conducted in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where in the past decade an unprecedented amount of scientific funding has been allocated to sugarcane-based product development. This is also a particularly notable research setting because Brazil is the top producer of sugarcane in the world, and the country was originally built upon the slave-based sugarcane industry starting in the sixteenth century. The investigators will examine how sugarcane scientists, state funding agents, and sugar factory workers in Sao Paulo conceive, develop, and implement sugarcane as a petroleum replacement. The investigators will assess to what extent these actors understand the historical, social, economic, and environmental characteristics of sugarcane in Brazil as positively or negatively impacting the feasibility of making sugarcane-based petroleum replacements. The investigators will carry out participant observation, interviews, focus groups, and surveys among the sugarcane scientists, funding agents, and sugar factory workers. This research will increase understandings of how biotechnology, manufacturing, and agriculture are coming together in new ways in the twenty-first century. Findings from this research will be crucial to formulating socially, economically, and environmentally responsible policies around plant-based manufacturing practices in the future. Furthermore, this research will contribute to efforts to improve cross-disciplinary collaborations between social scientists and biologists with the aim of better understanding and communicating to the public the social implications of new biotechnologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.