Adam Arkin

Dr. Adam Arkin is the Dean A. Richard Newton Memorial Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley and Senior Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. After earning his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from MIT in 1992, he has established himself as a leader in computational and experimental biology. His research focuses on developing technologies for discovery, prediction, control, and design of microbial and viral functions in environmental contexts, spanning synthetic biology, genomics, metagenomics, and physiology. He serves as chief scientist of the Department of Energy's ENIGMA program, studying microbial communities' impact on ecosystems, and directs the DOE Systems Biology Knowledgebase program. As director of the Center for Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space, he leads research on biological solutions for Mars missions, developing microbial and plant-based systems for food, pharmaceuticals, fuels, and materials. His groundbreaking work includes creating computer models of genetic circuits and developing Bio/Spice, a modeling program for analyzing cellular circuitry