Monsanto CTO, Inventor of GMOs and World Food Prize Laureate, Robb Fraley, will explore the global challenges our world faces and agriculture’s role in overcoming them. Every day farmers battle weeds, insects and disease to bring crops to harvest. By 2050, we will have roughly 10 billion people joining us at the dinner table. Farmers will need access to a broad range of tools to grow enough food to feed our growing world population. Through strong collaboration, investment in STEM education and continued innovation, together we can protect biodiversity and help ensure that everyone has access to a balanced plate.
Dr. Robert Fraley is executive vice president and chief technology officer at Monsanto Company. He has been with Monsanto Company for more than 30 years, and currently oversees the company’s global technology division which includes research discoveries and continuous innovation in plant breeding, plant biotechnology, ag biologicals, ag microbials, precision agriculture and crop protection.
Throughout his career, Dr. Fraley has contributed to years of agricultural development through a number of significant activities, including authoring more than 100 publications and patent applications relating to technical advances in agricultural sciences. Dr. Fraley is recognized as the father of agricultural biotechnology, and has been involved in research on agricultural biotechnology since the early 1980s.
Dr. Fraley has been recognized and honored as both a key contributor to the worldwide scientific and agriculture communities, including routine recognition for the tremendous impact that his discoveries and applications of science have had in supporting farmers and the agriculture demands of our planet.
Dr. Fraley’s honors include: a World Food Prize Laureate (2013), the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton (1998), the National Academy of Sciences Award for the Industrial Application of Science for his work on crop improvement (2008), among other recognitions.
Dr. Fraley’s educational background includes Fellowship from the University of California, San Francisco, a Ph.D in microbiology/biochemistry from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois.