Hank Harris, co-founder of Genvax Technologies, and professor emeritus at Iowa State University, is the 2023 recipient of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s (BIO) George Washington Carver Award for Leadership in Agriculture and Environmental Biotechnology. The George Washington Carver Award recognizes individuals who have advanced biotech innovation to make supply chains greener and have worked successfully toward that goal in the private sector or government. Harris has worked to reduce the time it takes to produce animal vaccines. His company, Harrisvaccines (acquired by Merck Animal Health), gained U.S. Department of Agriculture licenses for vaccines against diseases in swine and poultry, including the first-ever vaccine against pandemic H1N1 in pigs and the first vaccine for porcine epidemic diarrhea virus which, at the time, caused more than 8 million piglet deaths in the first year of entering the U.S. pig population. As co-founder of Genvax Technologies, Harris continues working to develop vaccine technology to aid in rapidly responding to foreign animal disease outbreaks. Pam Marrone, co-founder and executive chair of California-based Invasive Species Corp., is the recipient of BIO’s Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology and Agriculture. The George Washington Carver Award is sponsored by the Iowa Biotechnology Association.