MONTREAL (July 24, 2017) – POET CEO Jeff Broin today received the George Washington Carver Award at a ceremony at the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology in Montreal.

The Carver Award recognizes “significant contributions by individuals in the field of industrial biotechnology and its application in biological engineering, environmental science, biorefining, and biobased products.”

“I am very humbled by this award. George Washington Carver was an historic leader in finding new potential in agricultural products to meet the world’s needs,” Broin said. “That’s what we strive to do each day at POET, whether it’s producing biofuel from starch and cellulose or finding new or better ways to produce co-products such as distillers grain, corn oil, fiber, liquefied CO2 and more. I believe agriculture is the key to solving many of our world’s challenges.”

“Jeff Broin is one of the great innovators and entrepreneurs in the industrial biotechnology sector,” said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section. “He ranks among the most influential leaders in agriculture as well. Biofuels have created new markets for agricultural products and rejuvenated rural America. Jeff Broin has positioned POET at the forefront of developing cellulosic ethanol and improving the economics of biofuel production.”

As CEO of POET, Jeff Broin built the company from a 1 million gallon-per-year facility in 1987 into the largest biofuels producer in the world today, with 1.8 billion gallons of annual fuel production and 10 billion pounds of high-protein animal feed, among other products.

POET has always placed a high priority on research, from the laboratories at its headquarters in Sioux Falls, SD to its pilot plant/research facility in Scotland, SD to its commercial-scale demonstration cellulosic biofuel plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa as part of POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels. This focus has led to industry-leading technology such as BPX (POET’s proprietary no-cook production process), total water recovery technology, unique corn oil and distillers grains products, cellulosic biofuel development and more.

Past Carver Award Recipients

- Dr. J. Craig Venter, Co-Founder of Synthetic Genomics and Executive Chairman of Human Longevity

- Jonathan Wolfson, CEO & Co-Founder, Solazyme

- Ellen Kullman, CEO & Chair of the Board, DuPont

- Dr. Jay Keasling, Hubbard Howe Jr., Distinguished Professor of Biochemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley

- Steen Riisgaard, President and CEO of Novozymes

- Feike Sijbesma, CEO, DSM

- Dr. Greg Stephanopoulos, Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT

- Charles O. Holliday, Jr., CEO & Chair of the Board, DuPont

- Patrick Gruber, CEO, Gevo, Inc

About POET

POET, the world’s largest biofuels producer, is a leader in biorefining through its efficient, vertically integrated approach to production. The 30-year-old company has a network of 27 production facilities. POET, through its joint venture with DSM, also operates a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa. For more information, visit http://www.poet.com.