Rebecca A Wilkes
Associate R&D Staff Scientist - Bacterial Synthetic Biologist
Bio
Dr. Rebecca Wilkes is a Synthetic Biology Staff Scientist in the Biosciences Division at ORNL and is a Joint Faculty Professor at the University of Tennessee (UT) as part of the UT–Oak Ridge Innovation Institute’s Circular Bioeconomy Systems Convergent Research Initiative. She received her PhD in Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, where she worked with Dr. Ludmilla Aristilde to utilize omics approaches, with a particular focus on metabolomics, 13C-tracing, and fluxomics, to investigate carbon flux and regulation of cellular pathways involved in the catabolism of natural and xenobiotic compounds. She then moved to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as a Postdoctoral Researcher to work with Dr. Gregg Beckham and Dr. Allison Werner on engineering bacterial strains for the bioconversion of lignin to performance-advantaged chemicals. Building on these experiences, her research at ORNL focuses on employing synthetic and systems biology to understand bacterial physiology, manipulate stress mechanisms, and optimize metabolic pathways toward developing platform strains for biochemical production from lignocellulosic biomass and waste streams.
Awards
NREL Director’s Award for Exceptional Performance (2024)
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Awardee (2018)
Ford Foundation Fellowship Predoctoral Honorable Mention (2018)
Phi Beta Kappa (2015)