Armin Baumschlager completed two M.Sc. studies in Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology (University of Graz, TU Graz, Austria), identifying and characterizing enzymes for biodegradation of synthetic polymers under Prof. Helmut Schwab (TU Graz) and Prof. Georg Gübitz (BOKU Vienna), and developing semirational protein engineering methods for switching the NADH/NADPH cofactor preference of enzymes under Prof. Frances Arnold (Caltech). For his PhD and Postdoc, he went to the Control Theory and Systems Biology Laboratory at ETH Zurich (Prof. Mustafa Khammash), where he developed new tools and strategies for light regulation in cells. His goal is to advance the field of synthetic biology, especially through optogenetics, to improve the communication channel for computer-controllable living systems, and through this enable new approaches for a deeper understanding of life and the future of biotechnology.