Denise Manker joined Bayer Crop Science with the acquisition of AgraQuest, Inc. in August, 2012. She is responsible for advising farmers, distributors and technical crop advisors on best use practices involving biologic products in various countries throughout the world. She also manages the Citrus Greening research collaboration between Bayer and the grower-funded Citrus Research and Development Foundation. She is recognized as Bayer’s expert in biologicals and was recently named Distinguished Research Fellow. As one of AgraQuest’s founding scientists in 1995, she served in a number of different roles during the growth of the startup biological pesticide company, including head of R&D, oversight of global field trials involving biologic products, guiding several key crop strategies and managing numerous industrial collaborations.

She is listed as an inventor on 36 issued U.S. patents and numerous foreign patents, and is the recipient of the American Chemical Society Western Regional Industrial Innovation Award and the EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Award for development of Serenade. She holds a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography where her research involved identification of novel natural products from marine invertebrates and investigations into their bioactivity and biosynthetic origin and a B.S. degree in Biology from the University of South Florida.