Team:Rice/Instructors

Carlos Bueno
Graduate Student in System, Synthetic and Physical Biology

Carlos is a graduate student in System, Synthetic and Physical Biology. He is interested in Theoretical Biophysics and he would like to create strange proteins one day. Meanwhile, he likes learning about wet lab techniques and helping the iGEM team with the pathway models.

Christine

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...

David

David Zong
3rd Year Graduate Student in the Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology

David Zong is a third year graduate student in the Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology program. David is from Seattle, Washington and went to The University of Washington for his undergrad. There he was a member of the Washington iGEM team from 2010 to 2013. This is his second year advising iGEM at Rice. When not in lab, he enjoys watching the Seattle Mariners wallow in mediocrity...except when they play the Astros or Rangers because of MLB.tv blackout restrictions in the state of Texas. C'mon MLB.


Emma McCormick

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

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

Jessica
2nd Year Biochemistry and Cell Biology Major

STUFFFFFF

John Luke

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.”