Alexander J. Kehl

Alexander J. Kehl has devoted his scientific career to applying physical sciences to plant biology, becoming an expert in the structure and design of Rubisco. His journey in scientific research began at Cornell during a summer NSF REU internship, where his work was later published in Nucleic Acids Research. His exceptional performance led to his acceptance into the Maximizing Access to Research Careers/Biology Scholars Advanced Research Program (MARC/BSHARP), a program designed to provide intensive research experience to exceptional undergraduate students projected to be leaders in their field.

Alexander received his BS from UC Davis in pharmaceutical chemistry with a minor in plant biology. He continued his education by pursuing his Ph.D. in biophysics at UC Davis, where he is co-mentored by Patrick Shih from the University of California, Berkeley, and Justin Siegel from the University of California, Davis.

So far in his Ph.D., Alexander’s work has been published in Science Advances and has been presented at RosettaCon, the Western Photosynthetic Conference, and a Keystone conference on Computational Design and Modeling of Biomolecules. Alexander’s unique interdisciplinary training makes him one of the few people in the world with the knowledge and technical skills to bring a project like this to fruition.

October 2023