Jan van Aken, who holds a PhD in biology, worked as a genetic engineering expert for Greenpeace and as a biological weapons inspector for the United Nations from 2004 to 2006. Between 2009 and 2017, he was a member of the parliamentary group of the Left Party in the Bundestag. Van Aken was elected co-chair of Die Linke in October 2024. Until the election he worked as a policy advisor for international conflict analysis at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.
