Pioneer Member

Dinakar Bhattramakki – I am honored to support Dr. Barbara Mazur as a Pioneer of ASPB. I have worked in the research organization that she led in DuPont and then in DuPont Pioneer. She is not only a great scientist, she is an able scientific administrator with a rare quality of excelling in business of science as well. Her contributions in plant biology have been transformative, and she help to advance the scientific and product development efforts of our company. As a scientific leader, she demonstrated excellent vision and leadership. She built a word class research team that made groundbreaking discoveries and innovations. She directly and indirectly inspired many young scientists who continue to keep her legacy alive. And I think she contributed immensely to sustainability and food security worldwide by combining cutting edge genomics with a deep understanding of biology. The scientific network that she has built is truly remarkable. Her unwavering commitment to scientific progress makes her a truly deserving candidate for Pioneer of ASPB recognition.

Han Chen – Dr. Mazur is a pioneer not only in plant science but in the fostering of AgTech innovation for a better tomorrow. Dr. Mazur in her last year with Dow DuPont structured a collaboration with ZeaKal that was transformative for the development of the company.

Christina Dal Bosco – I am delighted to share my testimonial for Dr. Barbara Mazur. I first met Barbara at the end of 2016 shortly before I joined Pioneer-Du Pont (now Corteva Agriscience). At that time Barbara was leading the external technology scouting team. From the first moment I met her I understood that I had met an exceptional woman, scientist, manager, and leader. Meeting her was the pivotal moment that inspired my decision to join Corteva. Her advocacy for groundbreaking, risk-taking discovery projects have directly influenced my career and led to transformative advances for our organization. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have worked with her and her team.

Stephen l. Dellaporta – Dr. Mazur’s visionary leadership and commitment to solving critical challenges in global food security have earned her widespread recognition and respect within the global scientific community. Her groundbreaking contributions have significantly advanced our understanding of plant genetics and biotechnology. She continues to inspire future generations of researchers in plant molecular biology.

Rachel Dickson – I am truly grateful for the invaluable mentorship I have received from Dr. Mazur. Her unwavering support and belief in my potential have had a profound impact on my career and the careers of so many women at Pioneer. Dr. Mazur created a safe and encouraging space, and her guidance has illuminated the path forward for me. I am honored to have her as a mentor during her career with Pioneer and have benefited from her remarkable insights and leadership.

Oleksandr Dovzhenko – I first met Barbara in Freiburg at the time when my academic career was taking a new direction towards the establishment of our start-up company at the University of Freiburg. Although jet-lagged and tired after a long journey, she found time to meet me immediately after her talk to the plant scientists at the University of Freiburg. Barbara is extraordinarily knowledgeable and remarkable in her thinking about plant research and strategies, and open to new ideas, which has fostered collaboration between the two companies. Barbara’s excitement and passion for making science matter as a pioneering scientist continues to inspire me as CEO of our start-up company to help the world and save our environment through innovation and new technologies. Thank you Barbara, it has been an honour to learn from and work with you and your team.

John Everard – Barbara Mazur exemplifies what it is to be a Pioneer in Plant Biology: a leader who has made lasting contributions to the field and inspired colleagues throughout her career.

In her initial work at DuPont’s fabled Central Research and Development Department, Barbara led a group that, in 1987, first cloned the gene central to the site of action of three distinct herbicide classes. Among them, the sulfonyl-ureas—introduced by DuPont in 1982—revolutionized agricultural weed control due to their unprecedented potency. Having identified the gene for the enzyme, acetolactone-synthase (ALS), upon which sulfonyl-ureas acted, Barbara’s group proceeded to discover mutations that conferred resistance to the herbicide, and to use newly emerging molecular techniques to transfer that resistance, first demonstrated in tobacco, to multiple crop plants, including soybeans.

These early successes propelled Barbara to lead the newly formed Agricultural Biotechnology Group within DuPont’s Agricultural Products Division. There, she assembled a multifaceted research team that developed cutting-edge capabilities applicable to genomics, transgenic crop development, input trait discovery and development, and insect and disease tolerance. By exploring the use of transgenic and related techniques to enhance the quality and value of agricultural products, Barbara’s group achieved important successes in the field of output traits, including the modification of protein and amino acid contents in both corn and soybean. They also produced corn lines with modified starch structures to achieve functionalities previously requiring aggressive post-harvest chemistry.

Unfortunately, seed modifications that improve output traits often cause yield penalties that reduce or eliminate their economic impact. Barbara’s group realized a significant exception to this paradox with Plenish® high oleic soybeans, commercially released in 2012. Their lack of trans fats—a key contributor to cardiovascular disease—defined value for Plenish® soybeans, which today command a substantial and expanding market share.

Unlike the measurable scientific and economic impacts of these innovations, the vision driving them cannot easily be characterized, yet it is indisputable that Barbara’s leadership—as a true Pioneer of Plant Biology—made them possible.

Tony Kinney – Thirty-five years ago I was a young scientist, who had just moved from the academic world to an industry research group led by Dr. Barbara Mazur. A welcoming and remarkable leader, she guided me through the intricacies of industry life while encouraging my scientific endeavors. I really appreciated her promotion and support of the communication of that science, not just within the company but also at academic conferences and seminars, something that was not the norm for industry researchers at the time. From those early days at the DuPont Experimental Station to recent times at the Corteva campus in Iowa, Barbara has remained a mentor and friend. Indeed, Barbara has been an exemplary leader, mentor, and role model for many scientists both inside and outside the company, especially young women scientists. Barbara is scientifically astute, a decisive and innovative science leader, and an empathetic and compassionate people leader. In retirement she continues to serve the scientific community by her participation in numerous advisory boards for universities, institutes, and professional societies.

Susan Knowlton – I worked with Barbara for close to forty years beginning in 1982 when I first joined DuPont. Barbara and I, among others, were a part of the company’s venture into ag biotechnology which, at that time, was in its infancy. Barbara was tapped early on to lead and expand a group to build the company’s applied endeavors in the field. Crop tolerance to herbicides, evolving from some of Barbara’s early mechanistic studies, was the first commercial target for the newly formed group under her leadership. Perhaps, at the time, we were a little green in our understanding of what it took for commercial success but during Barbara’s tenure, the Ag Biotechnology group expanded 10-fold building a diversified set of skills across disciplines. That diversification would ultimately prove critical once the business was in place to accept and commercialize many of the traits discovered and developed during Barbara’s time. Even as she rose in the leadership ranks and the group expanded, Barbara always stayed close to the science remaining influential in the outcomes of many projects. She was, and still is, a mentor to many, and she played a particularly important role in supporting the growth and development of women scientists. I like to think I had a particularly rewarding career having worked with so many colleagues doing ‘really cool stuff’. I owe my gratitude to Barbara and others for that, thank you!

Mai Komatsu – The Technology Acquisition Strategy group was the last one Barbara led in her enduring career at heritage Dupont Pioneer. At Corteva Agriscience, the group now part of the Corteva Catalyst, platform continues to foster innovation in agriculture through investments and partnerships with startups, industry and academia. I was fortunate to join the group in 2015 and learn from Barbara and outstanding colleagues about strategic thinking, opportunity identification, partnership building and thoughtful opinion voicing. Barbara’s sharpness, outstanding memory and leadership, particularly through difficult corporate transitions, have left me cherished impressions. Her drive to continue mentoring startups as a venture capital advisor post-corporate retirement is inspirational and displays Barbara’s lasting contribution to the plant biology community as a Pioneer of the ASPB.

Enno Krebbers – Barbara Mazur was a major influence in convincing the company we worked for to use plant biotechnology, then new, to applied ends. She insisted that good science and quality work be done, meaning fundamental as well as applied progress was made in important crop species. We were taught to look for input and inspiration from around the world, her love of travel and shrewd judgement of people bringing us unique collaboration opportunities. She avoided micromanagement, giving those who worked with her freedom to set their own path. When necessary, changes were made, from which all learned. Barbara was committed to the career growth of team members. She became a mentor and friend as well as a leader respected by all. We learned a career in science could be just as rewarding and fun in industry as academia.

Nandini Krishnamurthy – Barbara has been an amazing role model for women technologists in the Ag sciences. She has the unique capacity both to identify the cutting-edge technologies for Ag applications and to bring together the right teams to create tremendous impact. She is an inspiration for so many of us!

Shai Lawit – Dr. Barbara Mazur has been a guiding force in my career from the very beginning. As Vice President of R&D at DuPont Pioneer, she championed the Discovery Grants program—a forward-thinking initiative that equipped scientists with the resources to push the boundaries of emerging research. It was through a major grant in this program that I first established my footing in industry, alongside a lively community of postdoctoral researchers. I will never forget Barbara’s insistence on calling us “Visiting Scientists” in external settings, a thoughtful gesture that boosted our professional standing and opened doors for future opportunities.

Over time, as I progressed through the ranks at DuPont Pioneer, I found Barbara to be one of the most incisive members of the R&D leadership team. She never hesitated to ask the difficult questions and probe into details others might overlook. Later, I had the good fortune to travel with Barbara to visit collaborators and see her in action as a mentor—someone deeply committed to cultivating the next generation of scientists, all while maintaining a genuine warmth and sense of humor.

Eventually, DuPont Pioneer evolved into Corteva, and both Barbara and I moved on around the same time. We kept in touch, and I am fortunate now to count her as a steadfast champion, advisor, and friend. She has become a vocal advocate not only for me but also for the company I joined—Pairwise. I can say without hesitation that Dr. Mazur has left a lasting, positive mark on my professional journey and on the science we do every day.

Jonathan Lightner – Barbara Mazur has advanced plant science in so many dimensions, but I’ll focus on just two of her leadership attributes that have positively shaped applied plant genetics and biotechnology globally.

Early in my career I was fortunate to work in my first permanent position as part of the DuPont Agricultural Biotechnology effort that Barbara was instrumental in founding and was leading at that time. This group had many notable achievements, including the first patented herbicide resistant soybean lines and the first approvals for a GMO quality trait in soybean – high oleic soybeans. In many ways these achievements all rested on a singular attribute that I credit Barbara and her leaders for creating: an atmosphere of high quality, wide open, and constructive scientific debate. As I gained exposure to more industrial science teams through the years I appreciated this teams approach to science and critical thinking more and more. From top to bottom in this organization everyone felt empowered to challenge and question… everything… results, approaches, conclusions… in a constructive environment that enhanced everyone’s science and quality of thought. It’s something I’ve always tried to cultivate and suspect I have never achieved to the degree that Barbara managed.

The other foundational attribute of Barbara’s leadership was a profound orientation towards, and value for , individuals as people. She got to know the scientists, particularly junior scientists, in her teams and beyond, and was a relentless booster of their careers and potential. She did this with me, and I’m sure I’m among many who owe several critical points in their careers to Barbara’s insight and advocacy. I continue to see her impact in people in organizations doing applied biotechnology around the world.

Knut Meyer – I greatly appreciate Barbara as a highly influential and visionary science leader, a strong developer of people and their careers.

Mathias Müller – Barbara Mazur has been a visionary advocate for plant biotechnology in industry. She embraced innovative techniques, whether they were home gown or came from the outside. An avid traveler, she scoured the world for technologies that would lead to better products for our customer farmers. On a personal note, Barbara has been an inspiration to me and many scientists who got to work with her. Her relentless and fearless drive, while caring deeply for her colleagues, have made us all better for knowing her.

Klaus Palme – I met Barbara first at Ghent University and then in Jeff Schell’s department at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding. At that time she had moved from an assistant professorship at the University of Chicago to a new position as a research scientist at the DuPont Company. There she quickly moved from research manager to research director and shortly thereafter to DuPont Pioneer as vice president (1999 to 2019).

One of her major scientific achievements was her work on acetolactate synthase (ALS). This enzyme catalyzes the initial steps in the biosynthesis of isoleucine, leucine, and valine. Interestingly, ALS is the target of several classes of herbicides, including the sulfonylureas, imidazolinones, and triazolopyrimidines. So when she joined a plant biotechnology company, her main goal was to confer sulfonylurea herbicide resistance to transgenic plants. To do this, she had to improve the function of the ALS gene by generating single and double mutations in vitro – not an easy task at the time. She succeeded in increasing herbicide resistance to 90% of the total ALS activity. Glasshouse trials of transgenic plants conferred resistance to sulfonylurea herbicides.

This was soon followed by a number of transgenic crops, including tomato and oilseed rape, all of which showed herbicide resistance in field trials. She later helped to elucidate the mechanisms by which ALS-inhibiting herbicides block the entry of pyruvate into the active site of the enzyme. Another major achievement was the world patent on herbicide-resistant plant ALS. As a result of these achievements, she has received many recognitions and elections to panels (Member Biological Behavioral Social Science Advising Committee National Science Foundation, Washington (1989-1992); Member Board on Biology National Research Council, Washington (1990-1996); Board Directors International Society for Plant Molecular Biology (1989-1992); Advisory Board Member, Board on Biology of the National Academy of Sciences. and Advisory Committee Member on several research projects in crop genetics and biotechnology).

Barbara has initiated many collaborative research efforts to provide solutions to the major global challenges of resource, food, and environmental security, and she has been involved in many partnerships linking locally renowned research institutes with leading international seed companies. Barbara has long been responsible for Pioneer’s trait technologies. In this role, she worked to develop, access and deliver key technologies and to link these strategic and enabling technologies and intellectual property portfolios across crop genetics research and development. She also ensured that Dupont Pioneer maintained a strong focus on external alliances and collaborations to meet Dupont’s business objectives. Most recently, Barbara was also responsible for leading Pioneer’s crop trait discovery program. An important step was the establishment of a partnership with the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a world-class plant biotechnology research organization. The goal of this collaboration is to leverage both sides’ strengths to provide better crop varieties to increase productivity, improve farmers’ incomes and quality of life, meet the growing demand for food, feed, fuel and fiber, and develop sustainable agriculture in China and around the world.

Barbara not only succeeded in improving herbicide resistance, but one of her most significant achievements was her early recognition of the potential of DNA markers to make a tremendous difference in the introduction of native and transgenic traits into the breeding process. But she also recognized the potential of another breeding technology that is critical to breeding. This is the use of doubled haploids in corn breeding. Current technologies for producing haploid seed and then genetically pure, or homozygous, diploid lines are complex, cumbersome, and expensive. So she was receptive when I suggested a new generic strategy during a discussion we had in Johnston. Although it was considered “mission impossible” within Dupont Pioneer, she was a big fan of my proposal and shepherded its funding through Dupont Pioneer. And so, in 2016, the startup ScreenSYS was founded, with Dupont-Pioneer as its first customer. From there, an amazing success story began for both parties, who are now on the verge of bringing doubled haploids to all plants and plant varieties. It is clear that this will soon change not only the timelines of corn breeding, but also the number of pure lines created as doubled haploids, providing important breeding advances at a time when population growth, loss of arable land, freshwater limitations, and climate change are having a profound impact on agriculture’s ability to meet the world’s demand for food, feed, fiber and fuel. Thank you, Barbara, for the many encouraging, inspiring and enlightening discussions we had together.

Monika Paule – I had the honour of working with Barbara Mazur for more than 10 years while our companies were collaborating on novel research projects. I recognise Barbara as an amazing leader who always had a very clear and forward looking strategy on how the Agritech field should be evolving. Barbara has very deep scientific knowledge, but also a very in depth understanding of the agritech business, as well as the global situation. Barbara herself has advanced in her career path from a scientist to a business executive, but she has always interacted as a leader for both fields. Barbara could identify where the most novel and top research science was performed all around the world and could bring different academic and business groups together to achieve incredible breakthroughs. Currently Barbara is still an active participant in the agritech world, enabling the growth of new agritech companies focusing on innovations in the plants field. Barbara has always generously shared her experience and knowledge and mentored younger colleagues just entering the world of science and business. There is a saying in the agritech industry: “Everybody knows and loves Barbara”. But the essence of this saying is that nobody needs to refer to Barbara by her surname, as her first name and the legacy it carries speak for themselves. It is an honour to write this testimony for Barbara Mazur, as she is a legend in the world of plant biologics.

Jan Schulze – Aside from Barbara’s impressive direct scientific contributions to the community, her biggest impact is undoubtedly her influence on, and mentorship of, countless colleagues in the field of biotechnology and beyond. Barbara’s unwavering attitude of inclusiveness, transparency and her belief in teamwork set a shining example for many that were and are so fortunate to work along with her. While always striving for excellence, Barbara still focuses on the human touch and fosters diverse views and broad inputs to stimulate inspiration for unconventional solutions. Barbara deeply cares about her colleagues and encourages and provides for an environment that allows to follow her mantra of ‘work needs to spark joy’.

Virginijus Siksnys – I was always impressed by Barbara’s energy, critical thinking, and vision. She visited my lab for the first time driven by her interest in novel genome editing technologies and played a crucial role in shaping our mindset towards development of gene editing tools for plant applications. Through continued collaborations and projects we became not only colleagues but also friends, and Barbara’s enthusiasm, guidance, and support were invaluable in helping us to establish our company. Apart from being a great leader, she has a wonderful personality, and I always enjoy meeting her at both formal and informal events. I have no doubts that she is worthy to become a Pioneer Member of ASPB.

Rao Uppalapati – Barbara, thank you for all your amazing contributions to plant science, and especially your contributions to biotechnology. Your strategic thinking and business acumen have had a great impact on innovations and products that impacted many researchers and farmers and the industry in general. Best wishes, Rao

Siqun Wang – I have had the privilege working in Barbara’s group for over 10 years. During this time, I had the firsthand opportunity to observe Barbara’s leadership skills, broad knowledge in the ag biotech industry, and most importantly her people skills. As the first few scientists hired into DuPont in the 80s, she is certainly a true Pioneer in industrial plant biotechnology!