Aaron Socha’s research is focused on applied chemistry of natural products. As a graduate student, he discovered several antibiotics from marine microbes, and determined their efficacy against clinically-relevant pathogens. As an NSF postdoctoral fellow, he researched microbial lignin catabolism and lipid anabolism, and developed novel catalytic and spectroscopic methods for biodiesel fuel. Aaron has served on the faculty at Bronx Community College – City University of New York (CUNY), and as the Director of the CUNY Center for Sustainable Energy. He currently teaches at Queens University, in Charlotte, NC, and leads an NSF Advanced Technical Education Project to develop curriculum on biofuels and bioproducts. He is a co-founder of Illium Technologies, a Berkeley Lab start-up focused on commercialization of bio-based ionic liquids.