Eric Brustad is a proud native of Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated from Purdue University (W. Lafayette, IN) in 2002 receiving B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Biology as well as a B.A. in French. As an undergraduate, he began his research career in bioorganic chemistry under the mentorship of Jean Chmielewski. In the fall of 2002, he joined The Scripps Research Institute to carry out graduate research under the direction of Peter G. Schultz. His thesis work examined applications of unnatural amino acid mutagenesis to expand protein function. Dr. Brustad moved to the California Institute of Technology in December of 2008 as a Ruth Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow where he joined the group of Frances H. Arnold. While at Caltech, Dr. Brustad applied directed protein evolution to engineer proteins for non-natural catalysis or biosensing applications. In 2012, Eric joined the Department of Chemistry and the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research program focuses on combining chemical, biological and evolutionary approaches to expand the capabilities of living cells. His honors include the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (2002), a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (2009) and a DARPA Young Faculty Award (2013).