Oct. 4, 2022

This paid piece is sponsored by South Dakota Biotech.

The granddaughter of a Nobel Peace Prize winner who now leads a foundation carrying on his legacy will lead off a day filled with cutting-edge content at the South Dakota Biotech Summit & Annual Meeting.

Held from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Swiftel Center in Brookings, the annual event brings together national, regional and local thought leaders to provide insight in a field that’s driving the state’s future.

“The pace of change within this industry has been incredible and with it comes opportunity for individuals to grow careers, businesses to flourish and for our state more broadly to capture,” executive director Joni Ekstrum said. “We’re looking forward to a day filled with insight from our health care, agriculture, energy and startup communities.”

Julie Borlaug, president of the Norman Borlaug Foundation, will lead off the day with a fireside chat-style conversation. Iowa native Dr. Norman Borlaug won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his work leading the worldwide “Green Revolution,” which introduced practices in agriculture credited with saving more than 1 billion people from starvation.

Julie Borlaug now carries on the family’s voice in agriculture as a champion for collaborative partnerships across sectors and scientific disciplines. She previously served as vice president of corporate communications and external relations at Invaio Sciences, vice president of external relations at Inari and associate director of external affairs at the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Strategic Initiatives for Corporate Relations at Texas A&M AgriLife Research. She serves on several boards and advisory councils, including the Champion’s Council Network for the U.N. Food Systems Summit, Board of Trustees of the Council for Agricultural Science & Technology and the U.S. National Food Systems Dialogues.

“It’s truly an honor to welcome Julie Borlaug to South Dakota and learn from her how our industry’s efforts to feed the world are so critical,” Ekstrum said. “She is a global leader in agriculture, and her insight is going to be invaluable.”

Kevin Kephart, deputy director of the Institute of Bioenergy, Climate and Environment for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will moderate the conversation with Borlaug.

“It’s very significant to have her in South Dakota,” Kephart said. “Her grandfather, Norman, was in Brookings in 1976 for a big meeting on agriculture as part of the nation’s bicentennial, and he credits several South Dakotans for helping advance his work. so we’re very excited to welcome Julie to Brookings. While she champions her grandfather’s legacy, she’s also very successful in the development of innovation in the private sector and the venture capital world.”

The summit also will explore a range of other topics:

• The impact of genetics and environment in the future of agriculture.
• Artificial intelligence and genomic data science in prescriptive health care.
• Cybersecurity in the new data-driven biotechnology world.
• The impact of climate change and lowering the carbon footprint on fuels, chemicals and materials.

“This is such a comprehensive slate of speakers – no matter what your role or connection to the bioscience industry, you’re going to leave the summit incredibly well informed and we hope energized by the future of this sector in our state,” Ekstrum said.

The lineup “is fantastic,” Kephart said. “My hat’s off to the whole crew at South Dakota Biotech for pulling this together. It’s a really exciting agenda this year.”

To learn more and register for the South Dakota Biotech Summit, click here.