Michael Clear is a Science Associate at Schmidt Sciences, working with the BioFutures Program to identify and support innovative research opportunities to advance a vibrant and circular U.S. bioeconomy.

Previously, Michael was a bioinformatics postdoc at Brookhaven National Laboratory where he investigated the influence of environment and bacterial interactions on bioenergy crops. As a NASA Space Grant Graduate Fellow, he used synthetic lichens to explore microbial symbioses through dual-transcriptomics. Michael’s interest in complex microbial systems and bioproduction began during his time at Algenol, an algal biofuel company, where he split his time between managing bioreactors at their integrated biorefinery and modeling the microbial ecology of their production systems.

Michael received his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Mississippi, and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.