Earlier this month, industry leaders and luminaries convened at University of Colorado's 68th annual Conference on World Affairs to discuss and reflect on some of the most pressing matters in society today. Contributing insights on the significance of agriculture and biotechnology advances was Joseph Byrum, Ph.D., MBA, PMP, head of soybean seeds and traits R&D at Syngenta.
Throughout the five-day conference, Byrum drew upon his extensive background in plant genetics to help bring context and credibility to discussions on various topics, including technology, environmental health, and the benefits of leveraging big data and crowdsourcing in research initiatives.
"Agriculture continues to represent one of the most impactful and emotional areas of global significance, and it is increasingly important for the ag industry to provide transparency and science-based facts regarding biotechnology," said Byrum, who leads global soybean breeding, trait research and product development efforts at Syngenta. "The Conference on World Affairs provided an ideal forum for this dialogue, and it was an honor to exchange ideas with such a distinguished group of thinkers."
The annual conference is renowned for bringing together global experts representing a diverse cross-section of humanity-from artists and musicians to business leaders and social workers-to discuss, as the conference theme implies, "everything conceivable."
Among Byrum's notable industry contributions include serving as the chief architect of a Syngenta initiative that resulted in the development of analytics tools that help plant breeders develop highly productive seeds more efficiently and strategically than ever before.
This initiative was awarded the 2015 Franz Edelman prize, in recognition of excellence in operations research and the management sciences. Byrum's contributions to making plant breeding more efficient-and ultimately delivering improved genetics and trait technologies to soybean growers-reflect Syngenta's commitment to helping growers produce crops to feed the growing population in an economically and environmentally sustainable way.
This engagement marks Byrum's first appearance at the conference, held April 4?8 in Boulder. The event was organized by student and community volunteers, and featured 200 diverse panels, plenaries and performances.
To learn more about the conference and its participants, visit
www.colorado.edu/cwa.