Jan F. Kern was born in Berlin, Germany in 1973.  He obtained his Diploma in Chemistry from the Technische Universitat Berlin and University of Kent in Canterbury, UK (with distinction) in 1993 and 1996, respectively. Kern then completed his Masters studies (with distinction) on the crystallization of Photosystem I under the influence of normal and reduced gravitation with Petra Fromme at the Max Volmer Laboratory for Biophysical Chemistry, TU Berlin in 1999.  He continued at the Max Volmer Laboratory, TU Berlin, for his doctoral work with Athina Zouni on structural and functional investigations of Photosystem II from Thermosynechococcus elongatus, and obtained his Ph.D. in 2005.  Upon completion of his doctoral studies, Kern was a postdoctoral fellow in the Zouni until 2008.  He came to Berkeley as a Feodor Lynen Postdoctoral Fellow working with Kenneth Sauer and Vittal Yachandra at LBNL from November 2008 until October 2010, and was a joint postdoctoral fellow between the Yachandra/Yano Lab at LBNL and with Uwe Bergmann at SLAC, Stanford University, using X-ray spectroscopy to study the Mn₄Ca cluster in Photosystem II until 2012. Kern was promoted from a postdoctoral fellow to a Scientist at LBNL in the Physical Biosciences Division. He is now a Staff Scientist (2019), and the Head of the Bioenergetics Department in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division at LBNL.