Robert Smith

Over 30 years in agbiotech as an academic Research Scientist, as a Manager for R&D, Business Development, and Operations, and as CEO. Primary areas of research, business development, and management have included:

• Plant protein extraction, production, and applications: Production of film-forming corn zein protein for industrial, food, cosmetic, and pharma applications (VP Business Development at Global Protein Products, Inc), and development of a protein concentrate and isolate from a sustainable aquatic plant for food applications (SVP R&D and Product Development at Lemnature Aquafarms, Inc).
• Heavy metal uptake and accumulation in plants: Research Assistant Professor at Rutgers University focusing on the uptake, biotransformation, and accumulation of heavy metals in plants. Target metals included cadmium, arsenic, lead, nickel, and select radioactive elements.
• Upcycling of agricultural waste streams: Stabilization of freshly milled rice bran to prevent rancidity and the loss of nutritionally rich milling by-product. Stabilized rice bran is used as a highly nutritious and functional ingredient in the human and animal markets. (CEO, and SVP Operations and R&D at RiceBran Technologies Inc.; VP R&D at Stabil Nutrition, LLC).
• Crop Genetics: Development and commercialization of major crops with value-added output traits including balanced amino acid profiles, high-quality oils, and low phytic acid. (Project Leader at Dekalb Genetics/Monsanto).
• Discovery, purification, and application of bioactive phytochemicals: Screened botanical sources for bioactive compounds for use in industrial, agricultural, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and food applications. Select compounds were further developed, manufactured, and brought to market. (Dir. of R&D at PhycoGen, Inc., and Dir. of Business Development at HerbalScience Group, LLC).
• Role of protein phosphorylation in higher plants: Cloned and characterized the function of type 1 protein phosphates from maize and Arabidopsis (Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Missouri- Columbia).

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