Julee Herdt
Professor
- College of Architecture and Planning
About
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 the 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.
BioSIPs inventions garnered the State of Colorado, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) “New Products” award, an “Excellence in Renewable Energy in Buildings” award, plus numerous other recognitions.
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. Julee continues ongoing biofiber building material R&D with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory.
Julee served as Principal Investigator on a $250K US Department of Defense, Army grant entitled: “BioSIPs®: Transforming Wastepaper and Biofibers into Carbon Negative Building Materials.” The work advances bio-mass waste fiber, BioSIPs building materials, and components (patented by Herdt) as carbon-disruptive materials to help the Army reach a 30% reduction in overall carbon/climate footprint to meet DoD, Climate Adaptation Plan, and Army Climate Strategies. The grant establishes a CU, cross-campus collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Lab, the College of Architecture and Planning, the College of Engineering, Design, and Computing, and the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory.
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."
Her work has been funded by: The US Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Defense, the State of Colorado, CU, private investment, and others. Her peer-reviewed biobased material science and architecture has been published by the International Solar Energy Society, Oxford University Press/Low Carbon Journal, Elsevier, and others. Additional publications can be found on her Research Gate page.
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.
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. 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.
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.
Areas of Expertise
- Award-winning renewable energy building constructions in modular, factory-produced design, in private practice and with students.
- Invention, application, testing, and commercialization of biobased building materials from 100% waste fibers, and the integration of these with solar + renewable energy technologies.
- Patenting of biobased building materials in private practice, at CU, and in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory.
- Founding of BioSIPs, Inc. a Colorado-based clean-tech corporation and woman-owned tech-based start-up.
- Principal Investigator on multiple grants including: “State of Colorado, Colorado Department of Health and Environment, recycling grant for BioSIPs development. CU-U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory, Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) and others.
Left: Internationally-awarded, peer-reviewed, renewable energy buildings from Julee Herdt’s patented low-carbon inventions plus their application + testing, with CU students and in private practice.
Right: Department of Energy, Solar Decathlon, back-to-back first place wins plus multiple additional awards. Julee Herdt, Architecture Faculty Lead.
A range of BioSIPs panels from 100% waste for application in building construction, furniture, interior walls and other applications.
BioSIPs 100% waste fiber prototypes as carbon negative alternatives to concrete, steel, and wood products.
BioSIPs 100% renewable, recyclable, and repulpable, structural building panel inventions and building component prototypes from waste and with no toxic additives, resins, or binders.
Patented, “MycoBioSIPs” a 100% bio-renewable, ultra-low carbon, structural insulated panel with programmed bio-degradability for earth remediation at end of use. Shown at left, Professor Herdt’s research students’ award-winning MycoBioSIPs presentation excerpt. The project won a Denver, campus-wide design, engineering, and technology award.
Students full-scale testing BioSIPs structural insulated panels using ASTM E72 standards and protocols at CU’s Rapid Prototyping Lab, College of Engineering and Applied Science. BioSIPs patented and integrated 3D core, skin, and insulation system outperformed standard SIP products in critical construction areas of axial- and transverse-loading. This makes it a superior product for high-seismic-, wind-, and other dynamic load situations.
Left: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent number 9,740,799 B2. Professor Julee Herdt’s software patent for design, strength analysis, and material science determinations for designing BioSIPs, structurally load-bearing building enclosures, and other products, using her high-density “eco-fiberboard” planar construction boards. Co-patented with the USDA Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) and included in the University of Colorado’s and USDA FPL’s patent portfolios.
Right U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent number 9,010,054 B2. BioSIPs, Structural Building Panels. Methods and apparatus for design of Julee Herdt’s BioSIPs, low carbon structural insulated patents from 100% waste fibers. Owned by BioSIPs, Inc., Julee Herdt’s woman-owned, clean-tech corporation.
Education, Licensure & Certifications
DEGREES HELD
- MArch, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Los Angeles, California (1989)
“Best Graduate Thesis Award” Thesis Advisor, Wolf Prix, Partner, Coop Himmelblau, Vienna + Los Angeles. - BArch, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee (1980)
Awarded “Chancellor's Citation for Extraordinary Professional Promise” Gamma Beta Phi Honor Society. - Pre-architecture, engineering and science, University of Louisville, Speed School of Engineering, (1976-77)
- BS in Industrial Technology, Western Kentucky University (1975)
with minor in Interior Design
Resumes/CV:
Awards
INTERNATIONAL SOLAR DECATHON, BACK-TO-BACK WINS FOR WORK WITH STUDENTS & IN COLLABORATION WITH CU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & APPLIED SCIENCE
- International Solar Decathlon Competition
- First Place “Overall Winner”
- First Place, "Communications Event Winner"
- First Place “Documentations Event Winner” with Special Recognition for excellence in Website, Branding, and Competition Publications”
- First Place “Getting Around”
- “Best Green Design” BP Solar Award
- “Best Home Construction” Do It Yourself Network Award
- “Energy Efficiency in Design Award, Second Place” Home Builders Association, HBA
- International Solar Decathlon Competition
- First Place “Overall Winner”
- First Place “Website Event Winner”
- “People’s Choice Award, Second Place”
- “US Green Building Council, USGBC, Colorado Public Interest Design Award”, through nomination. “In recognition of experimentation and commitment to visionary environmental and health-related impacts with projected economic impacts.”
- Technology, Engineering, and Math campus-wide award: “MycoBioSIPs, Mushroom + Paper + Plants, The making of BioRenewable Construction panels for Healthier People, Environment, and Planet” w/ CU research students
- “Environmental Leadership Award” and “Colorado Green Leader", State of Colorado, and with EPA nomination.
- “National Faculty Design Award” American Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
- AIA Latrobe Prize finalist for the AIA’s highest research prize competition.
- “Outstanding Faculty Member Recognition”, American Institute of Architects, CU Student Chapter, AIAS.
- "Mentor of the Year Award”. American Institute of Architects, Colorado North.
- “Educator of the Year Award”. Masonic Lodges of Colorado.
- Excellence in Research and Creative Activities Award, University of Colorado.
RECOGNITIONS AND HONORS WITH STUDENTS
- “CU Campus Environmental Award” for CU Solar Decathlon project
- "ReWard for Environmental Leadership.” Colleges of architecture and engineering for 2005 Solar Decathlon win. Center for Resource Conservation, Boulder
- “CU Campus Environmental Award.” Solar Decathlon Team Award
- "Wirth Chair Community Award.” Colleges of architecture and engineering Solar Decathlon win.
WORK PRESENTED TO PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; INCLUDED IN CONGRESSIONAL RECORDS
- President George W. Bush and the U.S. House of Representatives.
- U.S. House Committee on Science
- President George W. Bush and the US House of Representatives.
Affiliations
PRESENTING ON THE TOPIC OF LOW CARBON ARCHITECTURE AND MATERIALS
- International Solar Energy Conference and National American Solar Energy Society conference. “An Energy and Material Assessment of the Bio-based Farmhouse. Austin.
- Speaker representing the United States Department of Agriculture, Alternative Agricultural Research & Commercialization Corporation at the Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Technical Evaluation Center: “Biobased Building Materials.”
- USDA Biobased Building Materials Assessment, Committee Work: “Determining Methods for Evaluating and Comparing Green Building Materials to Standard Materials Counterparts."
- Speaker. Annual Board of Director's meeting of the United States Department of Agriculture, Alternative Agricultural Research & Commercialization Corporation.
- USDA Rural Housing Service: "Methods for using bio-based building materials in housing."
- National Marketplace for the Environment Conference. Washington, D.C. Presentation: "Julee Herdt’s Farmhouse Residence- A Bio-Based Project from USDA Sponsored Agricultural Materials.”
- Thriving in the Green Building Marketplace Conference. U.S. Dept of Commerce, American Institute of Architects. Representative for USDA Alternative Agricultural Research & Commercialization Corporation at bio-based building material conference. San Diego.
- University of Kentucky, Kentucky Tobacco Research association on waste residues in building material fabrication. Presentation: "Engineered Molded Fiber Technology as a New Use for Tobacco By-Products."
- USDA Agricultural Day. Washington, D.C. Video: "New Uses for Agricultural Products."
- New England ECO EXPO. Session Presentation: "Bio-based Building Materials as Alternatives to Petroleum-Based Products." Boston.
- Boulder Channel 8 Public Television, Greenpoints Program for education of energy and resource efficient everyday living. Production: "The Farmhouse Environmental Home."
- CU Sustainable Energy Forum. USGBC, Colorado Conference Speaker.
- International Interior Design Society, Sustainable Design Event, Speaker
- US Green Building Council, Colorado Chapter. Educational Program Speaker
- Environmental Design: Industrialized Agricultural Architecture, IAA & The Farmhouse presented at the ACSA, National Conference Proceedings.
CHARITABLE CAUSES: ON-GOING FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Multiple animal protection and rescue groups, human-rights organizations, and environmental non-profits.