Al Kern, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Kern was most recently Director of Biotechnology Programs at California
State University San Marcos located in the San Diego biotechnology cluster.
Previously, he was CEO of Entomos, Inc. and assisted in the spin out of
Pasteuria Bioscience. Earlier he was Executive Vice President with Mycogen
Corporation from start-up through IPO, a market cap of $1.2B, and sale to
Dow Chemical. Prior to Mycogen, he was director of product development with
Monsanto and served as the first product manager for Roundup herbicide. In
1978-82, he resided in Tokyo while building a commercial development
organization for Monsanto Far East Asia. Dr. Kern holds a Ph.D. from
Michigan State University.
Kelly Smith, PhD
Chief Technical Officer
Prior to founding Pasteuria Bioscience, Dr. Smith worked on the commercialization and scale-up of the
Pasteuria production technology at Entomos, Inc. Previously, Dr. Smith was the Senior Scientist at Hercules Pulp and Paper Division, Jacksonville, FL where she managed and improved culture maintenance, process scale-up procedures and contamination control. She invented a laboratory-scale batch reactor for studies on biofilms and developed novel on-site monitoring techniques for anaerobic bacteria in paper mills.
Dr. Smith received a PhD in Environmental Engineering Science (Applied Microbiology) from the California Institute of Technology, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Smithsonian Institution, developing DNA-based monitoring methods for bioremediation of agricultural runoff. She also holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University.
Thomas Hewlett, MS
Senior Scientist
Mr. Hewlett has more than twenty years of research expertise in the biology and management of plant parasitic nematodes on agronomic and vegetable crops. He has worked on this specific technology since 1999. Mr. Hewlett was a principal in the concept of using
Pasteuria spp. at Disney’s EPCOT center, which is now in the seventh year of successful use. Prior to his scientific post, he served in the Peace Corps for five years as Supervisor of the Rural Education Center in Swaziland. Mr. Hewlett holds an M.S. in Pest Management/Nematology from the University of Florida and a B.S. in Biology from the California State University Fullerton.
Susan Griswold
Laboratory Manager
Ms. Griswold has more than 25 years of research experience in a variety of agricultural and biological disciplines, including monoclonal antibody production, molecular diagnostics for citrus canker, and field control of phytophthora, rhizoctonia, and a variety of other crop diseases. She holds a B.S. in Microbiology from Arizona State University.
