J. Craig Venter Named MRIGlobal 2013 Citation Award Winner

Preeminent Scientist Will Receive Honor at Annual Dinner on Sept. 4, 2013

Kansas City, Mo. — The MRIGlobal Board of Directors and Trustees today announced that it will present its annual Citation Award this year to J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., one of the leading scientists of the 21st century.

Dr. Venter is the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a not-for-profit research organization dedicated to human, microbial, plant, synthetic, and environmental research.  He also is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Synthetic Genomics Inc., a privately held company dedicated to commercializing genomic-driven solutions to energy sources, food and nutritional products, and next-generation vaccines. 

The MRIGlobal Citation Award is presented annually to one who exemplifies leadership in science, business, academia, or the arts. 

"J. Craig Venter is a modern pioneer, developing groundbreaking advances as the first to sequence the human genome and create self-replicating synthetic life," said William A. Hall, Chairman of the MRIGlobal Board of Directors and Trustees. "It is our honor to recognize him for his inspiring legacy of contributions to science." 

Dr. Venter will receive the award at the MRIGlobal Annual Dinner, which will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, September 4, at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel, 2345 Grand Blvd., Kansas City. 

About MRIGlobal

MRIGlobal, a not-for-profit research and development organization, delivers global solutions in national security and defense, energy and environment, life and animal sciences, agriculture and food safety, and transportation. The organization performs scientific research, advanced engineering and program integration and management for clients in government, industry and academia.  Established in 1944 as Midwest Research Institute, MRIGlobal is based in Kansas City, Mo., operates in nine states and Washington, D.C., and manages more than 3,300 employees.

MRIGlobal is one of two partners in the Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC, which manages and operates the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., for the U.S. Department of Energy.

For more information, visit www.mriglobal.org.

Media Contact

Pam Sharitz-Tesch, MRIGlobal
psharitz-tesch@mriglobal.org
816-678-7293