#8 Genetic Engineer

As the world’s population marches on past 7 billion people, there is an ever-increasing pressure on agriculture for crops to yield more and be more drought and disease resistant.  Other applications for genetic engineering include industry (for example in fermentation or modifying bacteria to help clean up oil spills) and in medicine, where gene therapy has been successfully used to treat multiple diseases such as leukemia and Parkinson’s disease.  Medical applications of genetic engineering have been greatly enhanced by the mapping of the human genome, which was completed in 2003.