Engineering Biology Awards
Congratulations to Our Award Winners
Recognizing Excellence in Synthetic Biology: The Third Annual Engineering Biology Awards
Every year, SynBioBeta is proud to acknowledge individuals that have made great strides to shape the synthetic biology landscape. In 2014, we created the Engineering Biology Awards as a way to highlight the great science, engineering, and technologies that individuals will use to achieve success.
In previous years, award-winners have included the pioneers of synthetic biology: Dan Gibson, Drew Endy, Alicia Jackson, Christina Smolke, Christopher Voigt and Rt Hon Lord David Willets.
This year’s winners are well known to many in the field. They are:
Dr. George Church of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr. James Collins of MIT, and Dr. Reshma Shetty of Ginkgo Bioworks.
Dr. George Church is widely recognized for his innovative contributions to biomedicine, chemistry, and genomic science. In 1984, he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method, which resulted in the first commercial genome sequence (the human pathogen, H. pylori). Dr. Church invented the broadly applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods and array DNA sequencers. He is the author of Regenesis, a book that explores the possibilities and perils of synthetic biology. He has founded and serves on the board of numerous companies.
Dr. James Collins patented technologies have been licensed by more than 25 biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies. He has helped launch a number of companies including Sample6 Technologies, Synlogic, and EnBiotix. Dr. Collins has received numerous awards and honors including a Rhodes Scholarship, a MacArthur Genius Award, an NIH Director’s Pioneer award, and several teaching awards.
Dr. Reshma Shetty is a co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism design company building organisms to spec for customers in markets as diverse as consumer goods, health, and nutrition. Ginkgo Bioworks was Y Combinator’s first biotechnology company. Active in the synthetic biology field for more than 10 years, Dr. Shetty co-organized the first international conference in the field: Synthetic Biology 1.0 and has appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives to advocate for science funding. In 2008, she was named one of Eight People Inventing the Future by Forbes and, in 2011, one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company.
This year’s awards will be presented by Sara Radcliffe, President and CEO, California Life Sciences Association, and Rob Carlson, Managing Director, Bioeconomy Capital.
“The Annual Engineering Biology awards are the only international award that acknowledges the talent and excellence that is defining the field of synthetic biology and will accelerate future developments,” said John Cumbers, PhD, Founder, SynBioBeta. “We are delighted to acknowledge this year’s winners, each one a pioneer making contributions to the field. We look forward to presenting them to the greater engineering biology community as inspiration of what is possible and what will be possible using their discoveries and accomplishments.”