Steven Evans, Research Fellow, External Technology at Corteva Agriscience(tm) Agriculture Division of DowDuPont.

As a Fellow in External Technology Steve is responsible for fostering a culture of innovation and catalyzing new approaches to meet our aspirations. He has 30 years experience in Discovery R&D, biotechnology regulatory and commercialization of crop traits and biological and biochemical pesticides. For the past ten years Steve worked to advance the field of synthetic biology in public-private partnerships. He served in industrial leadership on the NSF Engineering Research Center (SynBERC) and is currently on the executive leadership team of the successor non-profit Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC) in Emeryville, CA. He advocates for agricultural synthetic biology and participates in several venues advocating for science policy aimed at more rational, evidence based assessments for products of synthetic biology, including serving on the 2016 NAS Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology committee.  Evans co-chairs the BIO Synthetic Biology working group and is involved in technology and policy implications of advanced technologies applied to agriculture, including environmental release, biosafety and biosecurity, and the UN-CBD assessment of synthetic biology.

Steve came to Corteva Agriscience via acquisition of Mycogen Corporation, which he joined in 1988. There Steve worked to commercialize a novel, live biopesticide based on Xanthomonas campestis and on sprayable biopesticides based on Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The registration and commercialization of a unique, dead recombinant biopesticide based on expression of Bt genes in Psudomonas fluorescens resulting in the first large-scale use of a dead recombinant biopesticide. Additionally he co-discovered fatty acid based synergists for glyphosate now used in consumer lawn and garden glyphosate formulations. As part of Dow AgroSciences, Steve has been involved in development of several plant traits leading to the Herculex™ product line, in capability development in bioanalytical sciences, and in enabling the EXZACT™ Zinc Finger technology.