Difference between revisions of "Team:Rice/Members"

Emma McCormick
2nd Year Biochemistry and Cell Biology Major

Emma is a rising sophomore studying biochemistry and cell biology. She definitely becomes invested in her research; for a time she enjoyed referring to herself as the Lord of the Drosophila in what she considered a charmingly dorky literary reference. A relic from this period, a framed picture of drosophila larvae a.k.a. maggots, is prominently displayed in her dorm room where it creeps out visitors (and possibly her roommate). Don't tell the flies, but she's moved on to spending long days in the lab with sarcomas. When she's not being science-y, you can probably find her hanging out in a residential college kitchen eating way too many cookies with her friends.

George Britton
3rd Year PhD Student in Systems, Synthetic and Physical Biology

George Britton is a third year Systems, Synthetic and Physical Biology PhD student. As a mountain man living in a concrete jungle, George seeks adventure whenever not the lab. He was bitten by the travel bug as a child and continually adds passport stamps and experiences.

Illene Dirce Del Valle Kessra
2nd Year Graduate Student in the System, Synthetic and Physical Biology

Ilenne is a second year graduate student in the System, Synthetic and Physical Biology program. She is from Santiago, Chile and participated in iGEM in 2013. In the lab she works on designing biosensors to measure biogeochemical processes in soil bacteria. No matter how busy, she is always reading a new book. Her dream is to backpack around the whole world (so far, she has only made it to US and couple of countries in South America).

Jennifer Carson-González
4th Year Biochemistry and Cell Biology Major

Jennifer Carson-González is a senior from Duncan College majoring in biochemistry and cell biology. This is her first year with iGEM developing her wet lab and research skills. When she is not in lab, Jennifer loves to play the piano for patients, travel, and dance merengue.

Jessica
2nd Year Biochemistry and Cell Biology Major

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John Luke
3rd Year Physics Major, Minor in Biochemistry

This guy's majoring in Physics and minoring in Biochemistry, but his singing voice might make you ask if he's a Vocal Performance major (totally check out The Rice Philharmonics on Youtube!). Even though a lot of his time this summer was spent cooking up gold nanorods for the Hafner Lab back at Rice, the behind-the-scenes work he's doing for the Rice iGEM team will get them to come to the next Jamboree bigger and louder (and maybe punnier)!

Josh Atkinson
4th Year Graduate Student/PhD Candidate in Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology

Josh Atkinson, a Michigan native and lover of cats, is a 4th year Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology graduate student. He can be seen in habitats such as the Silberg Lab in Keck Hall or any local establishment selling craft beer (i.e. Valhalla, the graduate student pub also located in Keck Hall). Outside of Rice, Josh enjoys hiking and being an adventurer whose skill level is between that of Dora the Explorer and Indiana Jones. Most importantly, Josh was part of the 2012 University of Michigan iGEM team.

Kendall Burks
4th Year Biochemistry and Cell Biology Major

Hailing from the great city of Waxahachie (“THE WAX”), TX, Kendall is a true Texan and a rising senior studying Biochemistry and Cell Biology. As an avid plant biologist and geneticist, her love for plants goes far beyond their abilities to produce oxygen or provide us with lovely salads. Kendall and her lab work to understand the inner-workings of the elusive organelle, the peroxisome. Besides her experience in the Bartel Lab, Kendall is a second-year member of the Rice iGEM team and continues to head the Human Practices portion of the project. Since surviving iGEM and the MCAT last summer, Kendall has continued on her path to greatness by presenting at several conferences and applying to the MD/PhD programs of her dreams. The future Dr. Kendall Burks can also be seen working out in the gym, serving on tennis courts, or undertaking the Herculean task known as “the walk to/from West Lot.”

Margaret Lie
4th Year Biochemistry and Cell Biology Major

The next time you're at the casinos in Lake Charles, Louisiana, there's no one more dependable you could bet on than Margaret Lie. Her organizational skills have yet to be matched by any human, and she always gets the job done. A Biochemistry and Cell Biology major, Margaret is poised to take her senior year at Rice by storm. As if a bachelor's degree weren't enough, Margaret is pursuing her master's degree AT THE SAME TIME. She's just that much cooler than you. Her independent research project focuses on the artisanal craft of creating near infrared fluorescent reporters. As she begins her second year in iGEM, she will continue her role leading the wet lab team on this year's project. In addition to her research and her work for iGEM, Margaret is currently working on approximately 356,234 applications to medical schools. She is appreciative of the opportunity to hone her essay writing skills to the extreme. When Margaret isn't working, you can find her scouring YouTube for the funniest of videos.

Peter
3rd Year Bioengineering Major

Work hard, work out, homework; if you catch Peter Tang, you’ll probably find him working. As a junior bioengineer, he definitely has plenty to catch up on. On top of that, he’s got his hands full working at the Maitra Lab in MD Anderson. But, he definitely likes to play hard too and he documents his adventures on the iGem snapchat. As an international man of mystery, Peter has developed a very particular set of skills. He is Gordon Ramsey in the kitchen, Lebron James on the basketball court, and Adele on the karaoke machine. To accomplish all these activities, Peter consumes lots of coffee.

Rohan
2nd Year Cognitive Science Major, Global Health Technologies Minor

Rohan is a kindhearted teammate who loves synthetic biology almost as much as he loves James Harden! He is a Pre-Med student majoring in Cognitive Science and is minoring in Global Health Technologies. When he is not doing human genetics research at the nearby Baylor College of Medicine, he is playing pickup soccer and basketball or hanging out with his friends. This rising sophomore is involved with the wet lab aspect of Rice-iGem and is helping with the mammalian cell culture and testing of the biosensors; he is also involved with human practices.