Left to right: Brig. Gen. Merrill L. Tribe, microbiologist Mary Elizabeth Hickox Mandels (1917-2009), and Dale Sieling. Mandels was a leader in bioenergy research and, during her long career at the U.S. Army Natick Research Laboratory in Massachusetts, she headed the Army's national bioconversion studies. She is shown receiving the 1962 Research Directors Award at the Quartermaster Research and Engineering Center