Louis. His research interests focus on developing synthetic biology approaches to produce advanced biofuels, chemicals, and materials from sustainable resources using engineered microbes. Current research projects include developing dynamic regulatory systems for biosynthetic pathways, engineering microbes to produce structure-defined biofuels, chemicals, and advanced materials, and engineering cyanobacteria for synthetic biology applications. Since he joined Washington University in 2012, he has received numerous awards, including DARPA Young Faculty Award (2013), ORAU Junior Faculty Enhancement Award (2013), NSF CAREER Award (2014), Young Investigator Program from AFOSR, ONR, and HFSP (2015), NASA Early Career Faculty Award (2015), Biotech & Bioeng Daniel Wang Award (2016), and Dean’s Faculty Award for Innovation in Research (2016).