Aaron Kushner, Ph.D.
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Dr. Aaron Kushner is an organic and materials chemist, inventor, AI developer, and entrepreneur at the intersection of multiple disciplines. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine and his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. For his dissertation, he studied biomimetic polymers and soft materials in the laboratory of Prof. Zhibin Guan and was the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships, and accolades, including the UC Regents Fellowship, the Hal Moore Award for
Outstanding Senior Graduate Student, the Eli Lilly Graduate Fellowship, and the Michael Zach Award for Promising Future Young Faculty Member in Organic Chemistry. He has previously served as a postdoctoral researcher in the Guan Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine, as well as as a research associate at Theravance Biopharma and as an undergraduate researcher under Nobel laureate Prof. Carolyn Bertozzi during her tenure at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Dr. Kushner has published eight research publications in Nature, the Journal of American Chemical Society, and Angewandte Chemie on the topics of polymer chemistry, soft materials, and materials engineering. He holds five patents in the fields of polymer chemistry, organic synthesis, and medical devices as well. Additionally, he was the recipient of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) on the topic of self-healing coatings for corrosion protection as part of a spinout company out of the University of California, Irvine. He now explores the development of cutting-edge technologies at the multimodal intersection of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, civics, social transformation, nutrition, and chemistry to provide high-level digital tools at low or no cost to underserved communities and marginalized groups.
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He currently splits his time between San Diego, California and the East Bay, where he enjoys spending time with his family, flying model airplanes, and achieving his nutrition and fitness goals.