DR. LAURA BOYKIN
Biologist Laura Boykin, CEO, Director and Co-Founder of the Cassava Virus Action Project, uses genomics and supercomputing to help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa control whiteflies and viruses, which have devastated cassava crops. Cassava is a staple food for more than 800 million people globally. Along with scientists in East Africa, she founded the Cassava Virus Action Project to roll out portable DNA sequencing and analysis to farmers. The team also trains local communities in the use of these technologies to tackle future outbreaks. A TED senior fellow, Boykin was awarded the Gifted Citizen Prize at the Ciudad de las Ideas Festival in 2017. The prize is given to the best social entrepreneurship project that is having a large-scale impact on humanity’s most pressing issues. She is one of 2019’s Wired 25—innovators who are racing to save us from ourselves.