Dan Voytas is a plant geneticist recognized for his contributions to gene editing and its applications in plant biology and agriculture. He helped develop a highly programmable gene-editing technology – Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs) – that enabled targeted modifications in diverse eukaryotic genomes.

Dr. Voytas earned degrees in biology and genetics from Harvard University and completed postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He joined the faculty at Iowa State University in 1992, becoming a full professor in 2001. In 2008, he joined the University of Minnesota’s Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development and served as Director of the Center for Genome Engineering from 2008 to 2018.

In 2018, Dr. Voytas was named a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and appointed founding Director of the Center for Precision Plant Genomics. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.