Prof. Dr. Boris U. Stambuk is a Full Professor of Biochemistry at the Federal  University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), in Florianópolis, SC. He earned a  M.S. in Microbiology and Immunology from the Federal University of São Paulo (1991), and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of São Paulo in  1997. He was a senior research associate at the National Renewable Energy  Laboratory in Golden, CO (2001-2002), and a visiting professor at the  Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA  (2006-2007). His Yeast Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Laboratory focuses on sugar transport and fermentation by yeasts, both for the brewing and biofuels industries, having published over 60 articles in the field. His research focuses on the genomic analysis of fermentative and industrial yeasts for further optimization, metabolic (and evolutionary) engineering, and the discovery of new species, genes, and proteins/enzymes useful for second-generation bioethanol production.