Dr. Joe Smith has over 35 years of experience in diverse public and private sector roles involving scientific research, services, and regulation. He was Australia’s Gene Technology Regulator, the Australian Government statutory office holder responsible for leading the national regulatory system for gene technology. Joe has extensive experience in various senior regulatory science roles, including as Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority following various other senior roles within the APVMA, Director of the Therapeutic Goods Administration Laboratories, and as Australian Government Analyst, where he provided scientific leadership to the then network of Australian Government Analytical Laboratories. He was actively engaged in international standards-setting and harmonization activities through forums such as the OECD and FAO/WHO, and in building cooperation and assisting capacity development with counterparts in other countries. Joe is currently President of the International Society for Biosafety Research and Chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia and provides strategic advice to government agencies and other organizations regarding the regulation of science and technology. He has a strong commitment to regulation that is based on sound science and realistic assessment of risk. He has a Ph.D. and BSc (Hons), is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Joe Jez is the Chair of Biology, Spencer T. Olin Professor, and a HHMI Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Joe was an undergrad at Penn State (1992), received his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania (1998), and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute (1998-2001). After working at Kosan Biosciences (2001-2), he started his group at the Danforth Plant Science Center (2002), and then moved to Washington University (2008). He has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), Phytochemical Society Neish Young Investigator Award, Fulbright Senior Specialist Award, and AAAS Fellow. Research in the Jez lab uses a combination of structural biology, protein chemistry, and plant science to understand biochemical pathways in plants and microbes with the aim of engineering these systems to address agricultural and environmental problems.