Aleksei Aksimentiev is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Aksimentiev has a background in soft matter physics and now deploys computational methods to investigate physical phenomena at the interface of solid-state nanodevices and biological macromolecules. His theoretical work on DNA translocation through nanopores is recognized as the first computational study of that kind. He is an expert in modeling membrane proteins and molecular motors. Within the NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics (UIUC), he directs development of the software solutions for computer modeling in biotechnology, which are used by many researchers worldwide. Dr. Aksimentiev completed Postdoctoral work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at Mitsui Chemicals, Japan. He has a PhD in chemistry from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Warsaa, Poland, and an M.Sc. in physics form Ivan Franko Lviv State University, Ukraine.