Johan Sanders is Professor of the Valorization of plant production chains chair with the focus of reducing CO2 production in a cost effective way using biorefineries at large as well as at small scale to enable optimal application of all plant components. He holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Amsterdam for researching the physical map of yeast mitochondrial DNA. From 1977 to 1993 he worked at Gist Brocades, starting the Genetic Engineering group and working on various projects in the field of enzyme research; he became Associate Director of Food Research. From 1993 to 2001 Sanders worked at AVEBE as R&D Director focusing on the enzymatic and genetic modification of starch.