President
BioChemistry

Vice President
BioChemistry
"I joined iGEM my freshman year because it seemed like a good way to learn more about biological research and to get involved with a group of students with similar interests. My involvement in iGEM has helped me to grow as a leader and as a team member. Working with the iGEM team at Missouri S&T has provided invaluable lessons that will help me to further advance my career as a scientist."

Public Relations Officer
Biological Sciences
"I joined iGEM my sophomore year of college hoping to get more involved in lab work on campus. My freshman year I did not do to well in some of my classes and I had not joined many clubs on campus. I had been interested in working in a lab where I could interact with my fellow students and I was interested in many of the ideas from past iGEM projects. I joined to get more hands on experience in labs and to learn more about the field of biology. After joining the public relations committee I became more involved with outreach events and teaching students about synthetic biology. After the first moth that I joined I realized that I was much more passionate about teaching and talking then I was about lab work. I am a now a senior in Biological Sciences with a minor in Chemistry and Psychology and the PR officer of iGEM. I could not have asked for a better experience in working with others and putting on outreach events. "

Treasurer
Physics/Applied Math
"I joined iGEM because I've always had an interest in biology. As an incoming freshman, it was a hard decision for me to choose a degree path because I wanted to study so many things. Even though I ended up going with physics and math, I still wanted to fuel my passion for biology. However it wasn't until the end of my freshman year that I heard about iGEM. The team's PR committee put on a program at TJ called "Play With DNA." It involved extracting DNA from bananas and seeing the chains it created. I had a vague idea of what synthetic biology was before that event, but I understood it a lot more clearly after that discussion. After that program, I started going to iGEM meetings, learning about synthetic biology, and getting involved. That's kept going until today."

Secretary
Biological Sciences
"I switched my major to Biological Sciences after my freshman year and I joined iGEM because I thought genetic engineering work sounded really cool. My future goals include going to grad school and having a career doing research, so having lab experience through iGEM was something that I really wanted to get involved in."

Web Master
Computer Science
"I first heard of iGem through my roommate. He told me about some of the research the team was doing, and I was blown away. I started going to weekly meetings to learn more about their projects. I stuck around because I wanted to learn how a Computer Science student could help a synthetic biology group."

Lab Manager
Biochemical Engineering
"Basically I joined iGEM because I thought it was interesting and I saw application possibilities for what we do. I have always liked genetics and being able to do something applicable with such made me really want to get involved. I like all the possibilities available and all that teams have been able to do or will be able to do in the future - it is really just amazing to me. I would like for things like what iGEM teams do to become more common place in the future and actually get more implemented than they are now, and I really care about the organization as a whole because of this and want it to be the best thing that it can be - both on our campus and worldwide."

Safety Liaison
Biological Sciences
idk quote or something work with me guys

Former Lab Manager
Chemical Engineering
"In high school biology, we learned about a chemical called Sonic Hedgehog. It's a growth factor that helps stem cells differentiate and become mature cell types (e.g. skin, muscle, blood cells). When I learned that we could control what stem cells became, I was hooked on biology. I continued to feed this fascination over the next few years by reading anything I could get on biology. In a book of scientific articles, I found one on gene therapy, which is replacing "faulty" genes with healthy ones. For me, this was the start of thinking about modifying DNA to fix problems or even to make completely new phenotypes.

I went to 5 booths at Minerama, one of them was iGEM. When I looked up 'Synthetic Biology,' I knew it was the field for me. It was a place where, in time, I could actually do DNA modification myself. Plus, the project they were working on sounded really neat; a microbial blood glucose sensor for diabetic patients. I went to the meeting and really felt welcomed by the team, unlike some other teams I visited. So I stuck around, visited the lab, talked to the workers, saw how much they cared about their work, and quickly fell in love with SynBio."

Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering
"I joined iGEM because I thought it sounded interesting and useful."

Biological Sciences

Chemical Engineering
"Junior in chemical engineering at Missouri S&T, born and raised in St. Louis. I joined iGEM because I want to get laboratory experience and to learn more about biology than I currently do in my curriculum. I would like to one day get a graduate degree in biomedical engineering, tissue engineering, biomaterials, etc, something where I can work on the human body in some fashion, such as designing prosthetic limbs. Outside of school I like to play soccer, ski, cook, and lots more. I am a member of the Communications & Publications team."

Ceramic Engineering
"I joined iGEM because I was interested in the medical applications of synthetic biology. It is a dream of mine to work in health care and develop technologies that increases patient recovery. Synthetic Biology is a very creative way of solving some of medicine's greatest challenges. That is why I joined the team."

Chemical Engineering

Engineering
"I joined iGEM because I would like to discover the positive aspects of synthetic biology and be proficient in the lab works."

Petroleum Engineering
"My major is PE. I joined because iGEM has the potential to solve some of the world’s greatest problems."

Engineering

Biological Sciences

Biological Sciences

Chemical Engineering
"I joined because there is no other design team like it, and it is a very unique and good group of people. Also, i enjoy working with chemistry and biology. My major is Chemical Engineering."

Ceramic Engineering

Biological Sciences
"I joined iGEM because synthetically manipulating cells to do something specific is something I have always been interested in and want to pursue in research after college."

Biological Sciences

Biological Sciences
"I joined iGEM for the real world experience. So many things involve team work, this gives me an opportunity to work on a team for a specific project."

Biological Sciences

Environmental Engineering

Engineering
"I joined iGEM because I think synthetic biology is awesome and I wanted to get more involved on campus."

Biological Sciences
"I joined iGEM a year ago inspired by microbiology class, where I learned that bacteria are freaking amazing! How they can be genetically modified as we design it to help and make a better world in an environmental friendly way. "

Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering
"The reason I joined iGEM is that I was interested in genetic engineering in highschool and a friend told me we had a design team for genetic engineering here. I joined the team and have been a member ever since. "

Environmental Engineering

Biological Sciences
"I joined iGem because we can change lives with our research. It may be a small step, but every journey begins with the first step."

Biological Sciences
"I joined iGEM because I thought Synthetic Biology was cool and wanted to be apart of a group of people with similar interests to mine. Making a gene library sounded like a cool idea and very useful in many fields."

Chemical Engineering
"I joined IGEM because I saw it as an opportunity to get more lab experience and contribute to a team that is working on projects I am passionate about. "

Biological Sciences

Physics

Biochemical Engineering
"To change the world one nucleotide at a time."

Biochemical Engineering
"I choose to join iGEM because I have always been interested in genetics and DNA. My sophomore year I found out about iGEM and wanted to join. After all, I am an engineer and iGEM’s purpose is to make synthetic biology easier from an engineering perspective. So I was fascinated by this and have stayed with iGEM since then."

Aerospace Engineering

Biological Sciences
"I joined because I love the pursuit of knowledge and the design team seemed like the best opportunity to explore a field which fascinates me. There was an added bonus of the projects actually being useful and perhaps contributing to making the world a better place. "

Mechanical Engineering
"I joined iGEM because I plan on going into Biomedical Engineering in grad school, and iGEM is the only design team somewhat related to that. Plus, iGEM did an event in TJ my freshman year, and they made everything seem fun and interesting."

Chemistry/Biological Sciences

Associate Teaching Professor
Biological Sciences, Cytokinesis
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, B.A., 1994
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA , Ph.D., Cell and Developmental Biology, 2000

Associate Professor
Biological Sciences, Microbiology
Michigan State University, East Lansing, B.S. Microbiology and Public Health, 1982
University of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D. Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, 1991