Nobel Prize-winning George P. Smith, the company's chief research and development officer. He is a professor of biological Sciences at the University of Missouri. He graduated from Harvard University with a B.S. in biology and a Ph.D. in bacteriology and immunology. After graduating in 1970, he joined the University of Wisconsin as a postdoctoral fellow (co-advisor: Nobel Laureate Oliver Smith). He has been working at the University of Missouri since 1975. He received the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the directed evolution of enzymes and phage display technology of peptides and antibodies.