Dr. Blake Simmons is the Director of the Biological Systems and Engineering Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Tulane University in 2001. Prior to joining Berkeley Lab in 2016 he was at Sandia National Laboratories for 15 years. He currently serves as the Chief Science and Technology Officer and Vice-President of the Deconstruction Division at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, a DOE Office of Science Bioenergy Research Center tasked with the development and realization of next-generation “drop-in” biofuels and bioadvantaged products produced from the conversion of sustainable, non-food lignocellulosic biomass. He also serves as the Project Management Task Lead for the Agile BioFoundry and is an Adjunct Professor at the University California-Berkeley and the University of Queensland in Australia. His expertise includes advanced biofuels, renewable chemicals, biomanufacturing, ionic liquids, abiotic-biotic interfaces, biomass pretreatment, enzyme engineering, biofuel cells, templated nanomaterials, microfluidics, desalination, and biomineralization. He has over 370 publications and book chapters, as well as over 50 patents. His work has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, iBiology, TEDx, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, LA Times, NY Times, CNN, Fast Company, and the KQED televised science program Quest.