Dr. Biernacki was born, raised, and educated in Cleveland, OH where he earned a BS, and MS and DRE (Doctor of Engineering) degrees from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU, 1980) and Cleveland State University (CSU, 1983 and 1988) respectively in chemical engineering. After graduating with the BS in 1980, he joined the Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO) company which later became part of British Petroleum (BP) where he worked for 15 years during which time, he also completed his DRE. In 1995 he left industry to pursue an academic career. In the years that followed he developed an interest in construction materials and processes for sustainable sourcing and use of carbon. After a short term at Northwestern University as Director of Educational Programs for the National Science Foundation Center for Advanced Cement Based Materials (ACBM), in 1997 he took a faculty position at Tennessee Technological University (TTU) where he has spent the past 26 years working on ways to improve the use of portland cement, studying ways to transform various renewable forms of carbon into useful products and educating students about chemical engineering.  In 2011, Biernacki was named University Distinguished Faculty Fellow of the Tennessee Technological University and in 2016 he received the prestigious Della Roy Lectureship from the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) Cements Division.  He has also received numerous other awards for his research and teaching contributions.  Dr. Biernacki is presently TTU Professor Emeritus and lives in Cookeville, TN.