Istvan Molnar

Istvan Molnar is a Professor and Associate Director at the University of Arizona's Natural Products Center. His research primarily focuses on the biosynthetic engineering of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and algae, for applications in pharmaceuticals and agriculture. He has a background in synthetic biology and aims to develop new types of functional foods and biomaterials to replace fossil-based materials, such as plastics and dyes.134

Before his current role, Molnar worked at Syngenta and Novartis, and he served as a Research Professor in Industrial Biotechnology at VTT in Finland starting in 2022. He was previously affiliated with the University of Arizona from 2004 until his retirement in early 2022, after which he transitioned to his position at VTT.125