Meet the Team

Avery is a senior majoring in Biology and minoring in CAMS (Computational & Applied Mathematics & Statistics) and Biochemistry. When in the lab, Avery enjoys pushing the autoclave cart and parafilming plates. She loves the color blue, Taylor Swift (specifically her Lover and Fearless albums), and cooking pasta. She also enjoys picking the flavors for our team’s weekly liquid nitrogen ice cream events. Her favorite flavor she has designed so far is BSL1 trash (green juicy drop pop liquid candy and sour patch kids).

Lin is a junior majoring in CAMS (Computational & Applied Mathematics & Statistics) Bio track. Outside of the lab, he enjoys soccer, tennis, video games, movies, traveling, and Chinese restaurants. He loves ethanol bottles. Using them always reminds him of his childhood dream of becoming a Hibachi chef.

Megan is a junior majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in CAMS (Computational & Applied Mathematics & Statistics). When she’s not doing sciency things, she’s probably rewatching Good Will Hunting with her dog, Frankie. She also loves eating vegetarian food, curating Spotify playlists, playing Donkey Kong Country Returns with her sister on the Wii, and pretending she likes tea more than she actually does. Due to her poor sense of direction, you can often find her wandering the halls of the science center.

Walker is a sophomore majoring in Computer Science. They work on modeling for iGEM, but when they’re not wrestling with their computer to crunch the right biology data, they can probably be found wrestling with their computer to crunch other data anyways. They have an unhealthy obsession with premature optimization and, on a completely unrelated note, the Rust programming language. Outside of CS, they are always trying to make time to play video games and watch shows with their brother and sister.

Krithika is a sophomore majoring in Biology with an interest in all things bacterial, so synthetic biology, which involves plenty of bacterial engineering, was right up her lane of interest. Outside of the lab she can be found hanging out with friends, stargazing, going on night walks, and generally enjoying the simple things in life. Other things she enjoys are fantasy novels, coffee, baking, cooking, and binging shows on netflix. To list a few favorite shows: Stranger things, Crash Landing On You, and the Witcher.

Zhe is a junior majoring in CAMS (Computational & Applied Mathematics & Statistics), Applied Statistics. He likes climbing mountains, playing basketball and going on road trips with his buddies. He also enjoys watching documentaries and listening to music. Zhe’s favorite thing to do outside the lab is to go to wawa and order a 6 inch toasted turkey sandwich with american cheese, tomato, lettuce and pickles.

Diego is a junior majoring in Neuroscience. He took a couple of classes related to synthetic biology before joining iGEM, and he loved the fast-paced, hands-on, and educational nature of the team. He hopes to not break too many flasks and to never flip the micropipette upside down while using it, for his sake. Apart from iGEM, Diego loves to play basketball, chill with his dog, Caesar, and spend time with his brothers and sister.

Bjorn is a senior majoring in Physics and Economics. He is very competitive and enjoys playing soccer, frisbee, and the occasional spikeball match. He likes to eat noodles and bread, mostly for lunch and dinner but sometimes breakfast too. Bjorn chose his major to avoid writing essays but enjoys writing blurbs in third person about himself for the meet the team page.

Alana is a Junior majoring in Biology, with a strong interest in Bioengineering, phages, and antibiotic alternatives. Her favorite pipette is a P1000, but they’re all pretty great! Outside of iGEM, Alana does Stomp n’ Shake Cheer, and loves adding more books to her shelf. Her favorite food is plantain, though anything from The Daily Grind is a close second, which is where you might find her around campus if she’s not out by Lake Matoaka.

Debby is a sophomore majoring in Biology. She is on this team because she wants to build a bioengineered unicorn one day. Debby enjoys going on wild animal-seeing on her college campus. So far she has seen countless squirrels, dozens of ducks, a few geese, three blue birds, four funky birds, one owl, one snake, one bunny, one raccoon, and one possum-like mammal. She likes watching sitcoms. Her recent favorite is Black-ish. Debby has watched season 3 three times.

This year, Beteel is a student advisor for the team. She is a Biology major who believes that science should always be of service to the world. She enjoys expressing herself through all kinds of art, including poetry, illustration, music, and blogging.

"The wound is the place where the light enters you." - Rumi

Dr. Saha is a developmental neurobiologist (and loves combining synthetic biology with development) and the primary adviser of the W&M iGEM Team. Her unwavering support was instrumental in the founding of the team in 2014, and in the team's continuation every year since then. She drinks 15 cups of coffee per day, much to the concern of some of her students. She insists it's all right.

Dr. Mainak Patel is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the College of William and Mary with an affiliate appointment in the Neuroscience Program. He completed an M.D. from New York University and a Ph.D in Computational Biology (focusing on neuronal modeling) from the Courant Institute for Applied Mathematics (New York University). He joined the faculty of the Mathematics Department at the College of William and Mary in 2014 where he has taught Calculus, Differential Equations, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Mathematical Biology.

Eric Bradley is chair of the Applied Science Department and has chaired the departments of Mathematics and Biology. He is also currently representing the Dean’s Office as the Arts and Sciences Emergency and Planning Coordinator. He has been fully involved in the planning, design, construction, and resource allocation of the multiphase Integrated Science Center (ISC) and is now planning for the next phase. As a practicing scientist, Dr. Bradley has a keen interest in translating modern methods and trends in STEM education and research into new facilities that will embrace both current and future practices for integrating inclusive and effective teaching and research. Dr. Bradley loves fixing the broken equipment in our laboratory and is excellent at it!