Jabari Byrd

Jabari Byrd is the first African American to receive an advanced degree in the cannabis field on the east coast. He was born in Richmond, VA by chemists (Wayne and Sandy Byrd) and moved to Montgomery County in 2012. After completing his B.S. in Biochemistry with a minor in Chemistry at Virginia Tech in 2016, he worked with industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) with his advisor Dr. John Fike while completing a Master’s Degree in the Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Science at Virginia Tech. His research focused on the agronomic management practices revolving around industrial hemp production. His program collaborated with Synthonics in 2017 to provide hemp biomass material for the research and development stages of chylobinoid with Dr. Tom Piccariello.