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Keasling, in Israel, looks to future of alternative energy

By Public Affairs

Keasling with Professor Asaph Aharoni
Keasling, right, and Professor Asaph Aharoni tour a lab at the Chaim Weizmann Institute of Science, a public graduate-studies-only research university focused on urgent challenges facing humanity. (Michelle Moskowitz photo)

Jay Keasling, a UC Berkeley professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of bioengineering and the chief executive officer of the Joint BioEnergy Institute , was in Israel last week to deliver a keynote address at an international conference on biofuels.

Keasling with Professor Asaph Aharoni

Keasling, right, and Professor Asaph Aharoni tour a lab at the Chaim Weizmann Institute of Science, a public graduate-studies-only research university focused on urgent challenges facing humanity. (Michelle Moskowitz photo)

The Agro-Energy Nexus Summit, in the city of Herzilya, was convened by the Fuel Choices Initiative in the Israeli prime minister’s office and the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute, in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy.

Keasling also delivered a lecture to a standing-room-only audience at the Weizmann Institute of Science on “The Bold Future of Alternative Energy,” and spoke at a gathering of the recently established Berkeley Club of Israel.

One of the world’s foremost authorities on synthetic biology,  Keasling is also the associate laboratory director for biosciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the founding head of the synthetic biology department in LBNL’s physical biosciences division.