Who We Are
Nina Dudnik
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Nina has always tried to combine science and global development. She began the effort to build Seeding Labs as a graduate student in 2003. She was a finalist in the 2006 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition and was awarded an Echoing Green fellowship in 2007 to formally launch and expand Seeding Labs. Nina is a 2010 TEDGlobal Fellow and received the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network Young Professional award for 2010.
Nina worked for the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research in Italy where she provided advice on the integration of molecular genetics techniques into conservation and plant breeding activities. She was a Fulbright scholar in 2000 at the Africa Rice Center in Cote d’Ivoire studying rice introgression using molecular markers. Nina obtained her PhD in molecular biology from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a BSc in biochemistry from Brown University.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
to invite Nina to speak at your organization.
David Qualter
Operations Manager
David comes to Seeding Labs from Image Arts, a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards where he provided logistics direction for the company with $110 million in annual sales. He brings 15 years of supply chain management experience with in depth knowledge of international logistics, warehouse execution and distribution center operations.
Originally an art student at Southeastern Massachusetts University, David now uses his creative talents to develop logistics strategies that produce operational efficiencies and quality customer service.
Board of Directors
David Hastings
Principal of Managing Excellence
Adjunct professor in Management at Tufts University
Working with mental health and community services, David started as an administrator for a psychiatric day hospital and maintained positions in top management and consulting services for a continuous 32 years. Twelve years ago he added a career as an adjunct professor - teaching management to MS and PhD level students at Tufts University, as well as occasional lectures at Harvard University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. In 2008 he expanded his teaching as part of a US-based faculty group to develop a hybrid online-in vivo certificate for students in North Africa and the Middle East.
From 1991-2004 David was the Executive Associate Dean of the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
David has an MBA in healthcare management from Boston University and a BSc in biology and history from Tufts University.
Patricia Larrabee
Founder and President of Facility Logix
Pat brings over 25 years of experience to the biotechnology real estate industry, including several years as a bench researcher. For the past 15 years she advised developers across the United States on a variety of purpose-built facilities, overseeing facility expansion and implementation programs for clients. Pat has led efforts to evaluate feasibility for a variety of wetlab incubators, and has overseen the development and implementation of numerous wetlab incubators.
Prior to founding Facility Logix, Pat served as an Executive Vice President for Scheer Partners, where she was responsible for the company’s Biotech Services Group, a fully-integrated real estate services organization serving the needs of the biotechnology industry in Maryland.
Pat has an MS in Biotechnology Management from the University of Maryland University College and a BA in Biology from the University of Vermont. She has authored several articles for nationally distributed publications and has been a speaker at Gene Acres and Lab Design Conferences among others. Pat sits on the Board of Directors for the East Baltimore Incubator Corporation and has been a member of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation’s (TEDCO) statewide Incubator Technical Advisory Committee for several years.
Eugene Terry
Former Director General of the West Africa Rice Development Association
Agricultural Research and Extension Advisor
Eugene Terry is an agricultural research and development specialist. He has been associated with the University of Sierra Leone, and has held the position of Plant Pathologist and Director of International Cooperation and Training, at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.
Eugene was the first Director General of the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) in Cote d’Ivoire for 9 years. He then joined the World Bank in Washington DC first as an Advisor (Agricultural Research and Extension Group-ESDAR), and later as a Crops Advisor, in the Agriculture Rural Development (ARD) Department, of The World Bank.
Upon retirement from the World Bank, Eugene was appointed Implementing Director, at the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF). He now serves as a Trustee on the boards of several organizations/institutions which include the AATF, and as a member of the steering/advisory council of BioCassava + and Virus Resistance for Cassava in Africa (VIRCA). Eugene holds a PhD in plant pathology from the University of Illinois , and a BSc in agriculture and an MSc in plant pathology from McGill University in Canada.
Martin Mwangi Thuo
Mary- Fieser Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University
Martin is originally from Kalimoni, Kenya. He is currently a Mary-Fieser postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University under the mentorship of Prof. George Whiteside. His interests are broadly in organic chemistry especially green chemistry, smart catalysis and application of chemistry in finding simple solutions to complex problems.
Martin received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, working on development of "pot-in-pot" reactions. Prior to University of Iowa, he had a brief stay at Simon Fraser University where he worked on conformationally locked analogs of dispalure. He holds a MS and BS from Kenyatta University (Nairobi, Kenya). Martin is also active in promoting and disseminating science among the less fortunate. He was a research associate at the International center for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), and a special teacher at Thika high school in Kenya where he was the academic counselor and mentor to the academically challenged students.
For his mentoring and academic excellence, Martin has garnered several awards [(the inaugural Lynn-Anderson award (UI), best mentor award (UI), most motivated graduate student (UI), and the Mary-Fieser fellowship (Harvard University) among others] and has been featured in several media outlets like the RSC magazine 'chemistry world'.
Advisory Board
Pearl Freier
President of Cambridge BioPartners
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
Professor of International Affairs at the New School
Stephen Grant
U.S. Sales Manager at YSI Life Sciences.
Calestous Juma
Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Venkatesh Narayanamurti
Director of Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Benjamin Pierce Professor of Technology and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.
John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Professor of Physics, Harvard University
Ruth Oniang’o
Founder, Rural Outreach Program
Editor-in-Chief, African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development