Dr. Katrina Cornish received the A. E. Thompson Career Achievement Award last week at the 2017 International Association for the Advancement of Industrial Crops (AAIC) Conference. This award is AAIC’s highest honor.
The A. E. Thompson Career Achievement Award was established to honor Dr. A.E. (Tommy) Thompson for his many achievements and lasting contributions to the AAIC and the development of industrial crops and products. This award is given to someone who throughout their career has made significant contributions to the development and/or utilization of industrial crops and/or products.
Dr. Katrina Cornish is the Ohio Research Scholar and Endowed Chair in Bioemergent Materials at The Ohio State University, and is Director of Research for the Program of Excellence in Natural Rubber Alternatives, a private/public consortium. Katrina is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is a leading global expert on sustainable alternate rubber production, processing and products, from circumallergenic latex to liquid biofuels, and her inventions form the foundation of the domestic rubber industry.
“I am very honored to receive this rare and prestigious award which really recognizes the efforts of many of my team and collaborators,” said Cornish. “I hope that this will inspire others to commit to team-based interdisciplinary alternate rubber crop research and development to address growing global shortfalls of natural rubber.”
Katrina is also the CEO of EnergyEne, Inc., an OSU start-up guayule latex production company, and three other companies, EnergyEne Australia Pty. Ltd, EnergyEne Africa, and DamSafe LLC. Katrina serves on several Scientific Advisory and Editorial Boards, is CSO of Edison Agrosciences LLC., and is on the Board of Directors of Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio. She is a consultant with Lee Enterprises Consulting, Inc. Katrina has >225 papers and ~20 patents.
To learn more about Katrina and her research, visit the Cornish Labs website.