Julee Herdt is an award-winning architect, Professor of Architecture, inventor, and researcher at the University of Colorado. In private practice, she's an established pioneer in development and application of biobased, low-embodied-energy building materials from waste fibers. Her “BioSIPs” inventions demonstrate repurposed cellulose of all types converted into low-carbon, high performance construction products for a healthier environment and improved human health. The inventions garnered a State of Colorado, US Green Building Council (USGBC) “New Products” award, an “Excellence in Renewable Energy in Buildings” award, plus numerous other recognitions. She serves on CU's "President’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative Committee", which includes leaders from across all four campuses. Her service is by nomination of Provost Constancio Nakuma "...because of her research, teaching, and entrepreneurial ventures."Julee was the Architecture Faculty Lead on both of CU’s back-to-back, first place, award-winning, Department of Energy, Solar Decathlon projects. In these international competitions, Julee and students took first-place titles by proving on a world stage that innovative biobased construction, powered using renewable energy systems can not only compete with, but can outperform standard, more carbon-intensive methods. Julee’s peer-reviewed research is published by the American Solar Energy Society, Oxford Academic Press, and others. Her first biobased residential prototype, “The Farmhouse, employed a comprehensive array of U.S. Department of Agriculture-sponsored biobased materials including her own inventions. Compared to a similar scale, standard stick frame construction, the Farmhouse exhibits a 40% reduced embodied energy footprint and 70% reduced energy-in-operation. Julee continues on-going biofiber building material R&D with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory. In an upcoming residential case study, The BioSIPs Research Cottage", she'll employ a range of her new generation BioSIPs inventions in small-scale, solar, affordable and healthy residential design. Julee’s company, BioSIPs, Inc, is CU’s first architecture spin-off company. Major funding for her work has been through the US Department of Agriculture, the US Department of Energy, the State of Colorado, CU, and private investment. As a licensed architect, Julee has worked throughout the U.S. and abroad with architecture firms including Morphosis, Los Angeles; Coop Himmelblau, Vienna; and Frank O. Gehry, Santa Monica.