ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Erico Mattos, Ph.D., co-founder of Phytosynthetix; and Anu Parvatiyar, Business Development Lead for eHealth Africa have been named the 2015 Emerging Leaders of the Year by Georgia Bio (GaBio). Additionally, Paul Evans a Ph.D. Candidate in Neuroscience at Emory University will receive an award for his community service in 2014. All will be honored at the GaBio Annual Awards Dinner, January 22, 6 pm to 9 pm, at the Atlanta Fox Theater.
The Emerging Leader of the Year award honors young professionals for outstanding contributions to the success of the Emerging Leaders Network (ELN) and the growth of Georgia’s life sciences community. The award winner is selected by a panel of seasoned industry leaders acting as advisors to the ELN.
Erico Mattos is a passionate scientist entrepreneur. As an advocate of urban agriculture systems he sees the intelligent use of exponential technologies as a solution to reduce the price of indoor farming and increase high quality food production based on sustainable integrated systems. After getting his degree in Agronomic Engineering from University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) in 2009, Erico joined the Ph.D. program in Crop and Soils Sciences at University of Georgia. During his Ph.D., Erico co-authored two technology patents on the Biological feedback control of LED lights. As a young entrepreneur, in 2013 Erico co-founded PhytoSynthetix, a company created to adapt and bring the Biological feedback control of LED lights from the lab to the industry. Along the way, Erico graduated from the Graduate Studies Program at Singularity University, received the Gifted Citizen award (Mexico), and was a speaker at TEDxUGA & TEDxPeachtree.
Anu Parvatiyar is the Lead for Business Development at eHealth Africa, a technology focused nonprofit building solutions to strengthen health systems in West Africa. She is responsible for strategic planning & direction to contribute to the organization’s efforts in polio eradication, health systems strengthening, and Ebola emergency response. Prior to eHealth, Anu spent six years in R&D in the medical device industry in Atlanta, focused on new product development in acute care at both C. R. Bard and Transcardiac Therapeutics. She serves on the Board of Trustees for the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, and is an outgoing member of the leadership team for Georgia Bio’s ELN. Anu has a Bachelor’s of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech.
Also honored at the Awards Dinner will be Paul Evans, recognized for Distinguished Community Service as the Industry Tours co-chair of the ELN in 2013 and 2014. During his leadership he helped coordinate and run all of the Georgia Bio Industry Tour Series and doubled the number of annual tours for the association. In addition, he has made extraordinary efforts to improve networking opportunities for emerging and established professionals within the Georgia life sciences community.
Paul Evans is a doctoral candidate in Neuroscience at Emory University, and his research project is focused on defining the cellular mechanisms underlying learning and memory. In addition to his research at Emory, Paul is collaborating with leading scientists at other institutions and completing experiments in Serena Dudek's lab at NIEHS as well as Ryohei Yasuda's lab at Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience. Paul's PhD research is funded by a National Research Service Award individual pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. While at Emory, Paul has taken an active role in leadership serving as the President of the Graduate Student Council and Co-president of the Neuroscience graduate program student body. Paul received his B.S. with Highest Honors in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology from Emory University.
For a list of past Georgia Bio Award recipients, click here. All 2015 Award Recipients are listed at www.gabio.org/awards.
Georgia Bio (www.gabio.org) is the private, non-profit association whose members include pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, medical centers, universities and research institutes, government groups and other business organizations involved in the development of life sciences related products and services.
Note to Editors: Credentialed members of the news media are invited to attend. Registration is complimentary. Please contact Maria Thacker (404-920-2042; maria.thacker@gabio.org).
