Taraka Dale

Taraka Dale is a Scientist, Principal Investigator, and the Biomass and Biodiversity Team Leader in the Bioscience Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry (Magna Cum Laude, Honors) from Allegheny College in 1999 and her Ph.D in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2005.

Dr. Dale has 20 years of experience in the design and development of mid- to high throughput assays for biochemical research, and her group focuses on applications that utilize algae and other non-model microorganisms as platforms for enabling the production of cost-effective biofuels and bioproducts. In algae, Dr. Dale’s team is improving the productivity and environmental tolerance of microalgae strains, with an emphasis on translating these results to outdoor cultivation conditions. She is PI, LANL Lead, or Task Lead for a suite of Biofuels and Bioproducts projects, including four of nine multi-institutional Bioenergy Consortia funded by the US Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office.