Rebecca Brown is a research scientist in the Material Recycling and Recovery group. Her research is focused on biological preprocessing of municipal solid waste and other agricultural waste with the goal of producing biofuels. She is known among her colleagues as the “trash queen” for her extensive work on municipal solid waste decontamination. In 2024, she led a multidisciplinary team on a waste preprocessing and collection trip in support of INL’s annual performance evaluation by the Department of Energy. Her work has informed local communities on alternative waste disposal options.

Before joining the INL in early 2020, her research and career interests revolved around medical microbiology, and she worked as a clinical microbiologist at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. While working there, she identified bacterial and fungal infections in patients and assisted clinical staff in identifying the appropriate antibiotics. She received her B.S. in microbiology, M.S. in microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry, and Ph.D. in environmental science from the University of Idaho.