Jessica Monserrate
BASF
Head of Sustainability, North America
Jessica has 10 years’ experience in R&D, most recently serving as Head of Microbiome Discovery and Head of Trait Engineering driving new lead discovery and improvement for Trait Research in Pest, Herbicide and Disease Control. During this time, she led the operation to manage and screen BASF’s 100,000 microbial strain collection looking for input traits and natural product chemistries for a variety of research projects. Prior to this she led the Mode of Action team for Bayer as well as several global projects related to scouting for new bio-based solutions for pest control, and worked with VC funds for the creation of new start-ups. Most recently at BASF she worked alongside various operating divisions as a BASF R&D representative on a regional key customer account. In this role she entered various BASF R&D platforms looking for new sustainability products to offer this key customer and co-develop biobased solutions customized for the customer’s market. Jessica earned her doctorate in Genetics, Cell Biology and Biochemistry from the University of California, Irvine followed by a post doctorate at Duke University studying small molecule and protein interactions. Her passion is to apply scientific innovation in solving the world’s greatest challenges and proudly represents BASF’s commitment to sustainability.
