Professor Foston’s research program seeks to develop innovative and novel routes to exploit and utilize lignocellulosic biomass, taking advantage of materials involved in industries such as agriculture, papermaking and forestry products. His primary research themes are:
- Sustainable conversion of biomass into chemicals using liquid-phase, heterogeneous catalysis
- Interfacing the catalytic depolymerization of biomass with microbial utilization
- Understanding how plant cell respond to mechanical stimulus
He is also a faculty fellow in the NSF STC: Center for Engineering Mechanobiology. The center will train a new generation of scientists and engineers in the emerging discipline of mechanobiology, specifically how to use mechanical force to engineer plant cell walls and how plant cell walls respond to mechanical force.