This year’s fast-approaching SynBioBeta London conference is slated to feature many participants with impressive accolades. But there is one particular speaker that stands out for his trifecta of professional, academic, and military accomplishments: General Thomas P. Bostick of Intrexon Corporation.Bostick joined Intrexon as a Senior Vice President and Head of Intrexon’s Environment Sector in September of 2016 after serving in the U.S. Army for 38 years. At the time, he was serving as the 53rd U.S. Army Chief of Engineers and the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE). In his position at the USACE, Bostick oversaw a variety of environmental preservation and sustainability projects, including the regulatory permit program for wetland areas and the largest hydroelectric power programs in the nation.During his military tenure Bostick was decorated with a great number of awards, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, and the Meritorious Service Medal. In addition, earlier this month Bostick was elected to the National Academy of Engineering—one of the highest distinctions in the field. Bostick graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he is now an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He went on to receive Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a PhD in Systems Engineering from George Washington University.For the past year and a half, Bostick has deployed his wealth of expertise to lead the Environment Sector at Intrexon. Bostick’s unique skillset in overseeing large-scale environmental projects was decidedly an asset to Intrexon, whose mission is to improve global quality of life and health, as well as promote protection and remediation of the environment, by pioneering a revolution in bio-based products. Under Intrexon’s Better DNA® approach, the company’s Environment Sector is pursuing solutions to problems ranging from pollution and contamination of drinking water to pest control of disease-carrying mosquitoes. Intrexon’s other sectors include Consumer, Health, Food, and Energy. The company’s highly diverse pipeline of bioengineered products includes non-browning “Arctic Apples,” a topical cream for painlessly removing tattoos, and growth-enhanced salmon. The company recently made headlines for its acquisition of GenVec, a Maryland-based gene therapy company. GenVec joins Intrexon’s many other acquisitions such as Oxitec, a UK-based company that engineers autocidal Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Among other things, Bostick now manages Oxitec’s activities related to this technology.Bostick will serve as one of several featured speakers at the fifth annual SynBioBeta London conference that will take place during the first week of April.