Thomas Buchholz works as Senior Scientist at Spatial Informatics Group LLC and is especially knowledgeable of American and European bioenergy research, policy communities, and industry. Thomas has research and work experience in the management and economics of natural forests as well as timber and energy plantations. In the course of his doctoral and post-doctoral research, Thomas has developed sustainability frameworks for bioenergy systems with substantive stakeholder inputs, and tested them on case studies in the US and abroad. His work is intended to contribute to a more elaborate approach to assess social, environmental, or economic costs and benefits associated with bioenergy systems - since such frameworks are needed to design future bioenergy systems and to assess existing bioenergy systems. With sustainability being a dynamic, indefinite and contested concept, stakeholder participation plays an important role in this work. As a Gund Institute Affiliate, Thomas is working on expanding and improving the practicability of sustainability concepts by focusing on the science-policy interface, interweaving information from multiple scientific disciplines with stakeholder inputs. He draws on the tools of general systems theory and Multi-Criteria Analysis to inform transparent decisions that contribute to lasting and sustainable solutions in natural resource management. Thomas' US-based work focuses on bioenergy-related carbon accounting policies and economics, as well as economic analyses of forest management options that combine traditional timber revenues with novel revenue streams such as carbon and other ecosystem services. His international projects include bioenergy-based rural electrification initiatives in non-industrialized countries, particularly in East Africa. Other past projects have included analysis of short-rotation coppicing for bioenergy production and forest-based bioenergy potential in New England.