Syngenta scientist Mary-Dell Chilton received a career honor on Wednesday when she was named a laureate of the 2013 World Food Prize.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry presided over a ceremony during which Chilton was named a recipient of the prize. The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing those who have contributed to improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.
Also named as World Food Prize laureates this year along with Chilton were Marc Van Montagu, founder and chairman of the Institute of Plant Biotechnology Outreach at Ghent University in Belgium and Robert T. Fraley, the executive vice president and chief technology officer of Monsanto. In recognizing the scientiests, the World Food Prize said that Van Montagu, Chilton, and Fraley each conducted groundbreaking molecular research on how a plant bacterium could be adapted as a tool to insert genes from another organism into plant cells, which could produce new genetic lines with highly favorable traits, such as drought tolerance and pest resistance.
As a result of Chilton’s work, Ciba Geigy, a predecessor to Syngenta, in 1996 became the first company to commercialize a genetically modified train in corn. Chilton founded Syngenta’s biotech research center in Research Triangle Park in 1984. She continues to work there as a distinguished science fellow of Syngenta Biotechnology Inc. You can see and hear Chilton talk more about her biotech work here.
Chilton will formally receive the World Food Prize at the 27th Annual Laureate Award Ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa on October 17.
