Joseph Jedlicka
AgTech Innovation Director
Joseph (Joey) Jedlicka, PhD, is the AgriFood Innovation Director at BioSTL, where he brings technical expertise to evaluating and supporting innovators. He leads the EAGIC (Early Adopter Grower Innovation Community) and ReACH Innovation Testbed to bring technologies directly to growers for product evaluations to generate unbiased data needed to validate product claims and to supplement data already generated by innovators. Joey is driven by the need to bridge the curiosity of science with direct commercial application to deliver innovation to farmers.
Joey holds a Doctorate in Molecular Plant Breeding and Genetics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He spent the first part of his career with Monsanto and Bayer Crop Science where he had experiences as a soybean breeder and as a leader in the North America plant health team. He also spent a couple years at Farmers Business Network where he led corn and canola breeding programs as well as managed the Innovators Research League partnering with technology providers to evaluate products in large on-farm field trials.
Joey, his wife, and their family live in St. Louis. He enjoys traveling with his family, exploring parks in the area, and has a growing interest in solar eclipses and space travel.