John Luke García
3rd Year Physics Major Biochemistry Minor

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)!

Emma McCormick
2rd 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.

Peter Tang
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.

Kendall Burks
3rd Year Biochemistry and Cell Biology Major

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.

Shikha Avancha
2nd Year Biochemistry and Cell Biology Major

Dana Smith
3rd Year Statistics Major

Dana is a second year member of the Rice iGEM team. She will be contributing to the design and content of the Wiki with her surprisingly good computer skills. She is a Microsoft expert (she's "certified" and has won national competitions!) living and breathing Excel and Access. Dana hails from the tiny East Texas town of Livingston, population 5000. Outside of iGEM, she enjoys working out, shopping (endlessly), traveling, taking iPhone photos/selfies, and playing the piano. She has been playing the piano for over half her life, so maybe if you bring her some chocolate, she'll grace you with her talent. She is a huge fan of guac and foods that are easy to eat. These foods include, but are not limited to, yogurt, applesauce, jello, and ice cream. Dana is also the epitome of an early riser; if you contact her after 10 PM, she is most definitely getting her beauty sleep for her next morning. A country girl at heart, she is obsessed with country music and will give you all of her recommendations if you dare ask. At Rice, Dana loves coordinating events like Outreach Day and volunteering her time with mentoring students at Houston area schools. She plans on pursuing urban research, specifically targeting education for underprivileged schools and students.

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.

Christine Tang
2nd Year Kinesiology Major

Christine is a rising sophomore at Lovett College who majors in Kinesiology/Pre-med. As someone who is both passionate and careful about research, she is the epitome of a team worker in any setting. Christine is always willing to help out and constantly striving to do her best in anything she does. She's the girl that brightens up the lab every day with a smile or two, even in the morning. If you don't see Christine crunching out results for the whole day in wet-lab, then you will probably catch her drinking coffee, working out or trying to study in the chaos of the lab. Or, if you're lucky, you might see her enjoying a game of Smash...

Jacob Behling
3rd Year Chemical Engineering Major

My name is Jacob Behling. I am originally from Houston, Texas, and I must have liked it there because here I am at Rice University. I am a rising junior, majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CHBE) and minoring in Business. I am apart of the iGEM Software Team. This team is working to develop an app that will both educate people about genetic engineering and be entertaining. Furthermore, within Rice, I take part in research in Oil Enhanced Recovery and am actively involved in Duncan government (my residential college) and Engineering Without Borders. Furthermore, I love sports. If the sport has a ball or a puck, I’ve probably played it at some point and most likely injured myself doing so (as I am very injury prone). My favorites include soccer and hockey. Other hobbies include playing the piano, two-stepping, skiing, being outdoors, and telling bad jokes. Peculiar facts about me include the following: I am a foosball enthusiast. I actively celebrate Groundhog’s Day, and organic chemistry is my favorite class.

Shaurey Vetsa
1st Year Bioengineering Major

My name is Shaurey Vetsa and I will be a freshman studying bioengineering. I am part of the IGEM Wiki Editors and Software Teams. In my free time, I love playing basketball, drawing, hiking, and reading. A fun fact of mine is that my nickname from middleschool has been the grand antelope.

Rohan Bhardwaj
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.

Peter Suzuki
1st Year Bioengineering Major

Peter Suzuki is a sophomore Bioengineering student from Martel College. This is his first year with Rice iGEM after having participated in iGEM in high school, and he will be contributing primarily to wet lab research for the project. When he's not in the lab culturing bacteria and running PCRs, Peter enjoys playing guitar and violin for Rice Mariachi Luna Llena (which everyone in the Houston area should go see!!) and playing baseball with the Rice club team. Any remaining time that he does not spend sleeping he can be found at the OEDK--and I mean any time of day or night. Literally. He's logged every hour from 12 am to 11 pm at some point this past year. "Engineering is fun," he says. "Alright sure whatever," we reply.