You are currently viewing archive.bio.org. Head to our home page to check out our fresh new look!

BIO Announces Royal DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma as Recipient of the 2011 George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in Industrial Biotechnology

<p>
BIO announces that Royal DSM CEO/Chairman of the Managing Board Feike Sijbesma will be presented the annual <a href="http://www.bio.org/worldcongress/program/carver.asp" shape="rect">George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in Industrial Biotechnology</a> at the upcoming <a href="http://www.bio.org/worldcongress/" shape="rect">2011 World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing.</a></p>

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Monday, April 11, 2011) - The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) today announced that Royal DSM CEO/Chairman of the Managing Board Feike Sijbesma will be presented the annual George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in Industrial Biotechnology at the upcoming 2011 World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mr. Sijbesma will receive the award and deliver a keynote address on Monday May 9 during a lunch plenary session of the World Congress, being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section, said, “The George Washington Carver Award was created to honor individuals from academia, government and the private sector who have made outstanding contributions to innovation in industrial biotechnology. The novel technologies made possible by industrial biotechnology are improving energy efficiency and cost effectiveness for manufacturers of everything from materials and chemicals to human nutritional products and pharmaceuticals. These innovations are also enabling a revolution in biofuels production. BIO is pleased to recognize Feike Sijbesma as a visionary leader of DSM’s contributions to this endeavor.”

Mr. Sijbesma said, “I am truly honored to receive the 2011 George Washington Carver Award for contributing to the progress and innovation of the industrial applications of biotechnology. I am convinced that in the coming decades biotechnology will have an enormous contribution in addressing worldwide issues around health, nutrition and environment.

“At Royal DSM, we are committed to make a lasting and sustainable difference to the world in which we live. Biotechnology will enable us to combine our knowledge of life sciences with materials sciences to provide brighter lives for people today and generations to come.”

Mr. Sijbesma is being honored as a visionary leader of the bioeconomy, which is projected to contribute as much as $230 billion to the world economy by 2020, according to the World Economic Forum. Under his guidance, Royal DSM has made significant steps in the development of industrial biotechnology for conversion of renewable resources to value added health, nutrition and materials.

Accompanying the award is a George Washington Carver scholarship given to an Iowa State University graduate student studying the field of industrial biotechnology.

Erickson continued, “George Washington Carver is considered one of the founding fathers of the chemurgy movement, whose modern-day analog is industrial biotechnology. Industrial biotechnology companies today are developing new methods to use renewable agricultural resources to manufacture fuels, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and food ingredients. The field has developed in ways that Carver may never have imagined, but the work of industrial biotech companies remains true to the goal of a sustainable bioeconomy.”

Past recipients of the Carver Award are Dr. Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo, Inc., in 2008; Charles O. Holliday, Jr., chairman of the board of DuPont in 2009; and Gregory Stephanopoulos, the Willard Henry Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010.

The world’s largest industrial biotechnology conference for business leaders, investors, academics and policymakers in biofuels, biobased products, renewable chemicals, synthetic biology, food ingredients and biomass returns to Toronto, May 8-11 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The event is coorganized by BIO, BIOTECanada and the Agri-Technology Commercialization Centre (ATCC), which is comprised of Soy 20/20, Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, Bioenterprise.

Online pre-registration for reporters and editors is now open. All programs at the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing are open to attendance by members of the media. Complimentary media registration is available to editors and reporters with valid press credentials working full time for print, broadcast or web publications.

 

Upcoming BIO Events 

BIO Intellectual Property Counsels Committee Spring Conference and Committee Meeting
April 13-15, 2011
Seattle, WA

World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing
May 8-11, 2011
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Partnering for Global Health Forum 2011
June 27, 2011
Washington, DC

BIO International Convention
June 27-30, 2011
Washington, DC

2011 BIO Human Resources Conference
June 26-28, 2011
Washington, DC

The Business Forum at the BIO International Convention
June 28-30, 2011
Washington, DC

BIO India International Partnering Conference
September 21-22, 2011
Hyderabad, India

BIO China International Conference
October 12-13, 2011
Shanghai, China

About BIO

BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. BIO produces BIOtech Now, an online portal and monthly newsletter chronicling “innovations transforming our world.” Subscribe to BIOtech Now.

For more information:

  • Visit http://www.bio.org
  • Follow us on Twitter @IAmBiotech
  • Join us on LinkedIn/MyBio
  • Become a fan at facebook.com/IAmBiotech

###