Caroline Clifford

Dr. Caroline Burgess Clifford has been a senior research associate and lecturer at the EMS Energy Institute and in the John and Willie Leone Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering (EME) at Penn State. She is currently a senior lecturer and research associate in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Her expertise, both technical and managerial, is in the area of coal and biomass conversion into liquid fuels and value-added products. Dr. Clifford has done research for the last 20 years focused on direct lignin-to-liquids and coal-to-liquids to make jet fuel. She has taught courses related to biofuel processing and energy conversion through the EME department and taught a course in Agricultural and Biological Engineering related to energy in biorenewables. Dr. Clifford received her BS in Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. Dr. Clifford received her MS and PhD at PSU in Fuel Science. She has lived in multiple cities in the US and in Africa (as a child) and Australia (for a postdoctoral position). On a personal level, Dr. Clifford shares her home in State College with a schnauzer/poodle mix, a schnoodle! She was married in 2003 to Dr. David Clifford; however, David passed away in 2006. She has several hobbies, including exercise, photography, embroidery and quilting, and cooking. She is also very active in the Lutheran church and has been studying to work in ministry after retiring from PSU.