Ingo Potrykus

Ingo Potrykus is a German-Swiss plant scientist and Professor Emeritus at ETH Zürich. He is best known as the co-inventor of Golden Rice, a genetically modified rice variety engineered to produce beta-carotene to combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries. His work has been both celebrated for its humanitarian potential and debated for its implications in the GMO discussion. At The Future of Science, Potrykus presented the case for biotechnology in addressing global food security.

The development of Golden Rice was a landmark achievement in humanitarian biotechnology. By inserting genes from daffodil and a soil bacterium into rice, Potrykus and his collaborator Peter Beyer created a variety that produces beta-carotene, potentially preventing the vitamin A deficiency that blinds or kills hundreds of thousands of children annually. The project faced intense opposition from anti-GMO activists, leading Potrykus to become a vocal advocate for evidence-based assessment of biotechnology. Golden Rice was finally approved for commercial cultivation in the Philippines in 2021, two decades after its creation.