Isabel Lima is a research chemist with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, ARS, Southern Regional Research Center, SRRC in New Orleans, Louisiana since 1997. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. at the Bio and Ag. Engineering Department of U.C. Davis, in 1992 and 1996. She started her biochar research while finding value-added alternatives for the disposal of agricultural wastes since 2001. She has developed and characterized a multitude of biochars, particularly using animal manures as feedstock, for environmental remediation with focus on heavy metals. More recently, amongst other research priorities, she has been involved in developing biochars for field application utilizing sugarcane bagasse as feedstock.