Team Members and Their Focus
Maddy Gruenberg (Management)
Maddy primarily focuses on the management and logistics side of iGEM, while being open to helping anyone and everyone if they so need it. She strives to be the jack of all trades for her team so she can help with all parts of the project. She has learned a great deal about experimental design, project management, website coding, outreach preparation, and time management. Maddy is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn so much with a group of incredible problem solvers.
Natasha Kennel (Outreach)
Natasha is our Outreach and Education Manager. She helped to set up and organize our collaborations, format educational materials for outreach, as well as oversee communications with other iGEM teams. She also helps out with running the team’s social media and advising weekly team meetings.
Alex Stone (Human Practices)
Alex leads the Human Practices section of the iGEM project. This includes doing proliminary market research, compiling a list of possible contacts, and reaching out to people with knowledge pertaining to the project. He also participates in the lab work, helping with the set up for the experimental procedures.
Crista Hernandez (Wetlab)
Crista is involved within in the lab. Helping with the day to day tasks i.e Hifi cloning, running gels etc.
Emma Tetlak (Social Media)
Emma has been working on our team's Instagram and Twitter pages! She has been creating posts to increase social media impressions and engagement.
Jaidan Peters (Wetlab)
Jaidan has done much of the preparatory work for the laboratory experiments as well as many of the experiments themselves. He has done much from conducting restriction digests, running gels, and transformation of competent cells to analyzing data, discussing with faculty mentors, and planning next steps.
Jeremy Rismiller (Wetlab)
Jeremy works in the lab helping with the production and testing of the plasmids. He helped prepare samples of manganese for biosensor testing.
Megan King (Wetlab)
Megan helps with running experiments and the troubleshooting that comes along with that. She likes to help out whenever/wherever possible.
Padma Deepa Doppalapudi (Outreach)
Padma focused on our outreach. She is helping out with finding various opportunities for extending our outreach and IGEM across the community.
Sara McLain (Wiki Team)
Sara has primarily worked on preparing the documents and information for the Wiki and advising team proceedings.
Paulette Aruagbon-Ogbomo (Human Practices/Social Media)
Paulette focused on helping both the human practices team led by Alex, and the social media team led by Emma.
Mentors and Other Support
Dr. Michael Craig
Dr. Craig is one of the co-investigators (co-Is) for the Wright State iGEM team. He assists with many of the administrative needs of the team including safety training, travel planning, and coordination of meetings. He also serves as a technical resource for the team’s laboratory research. He takes time to ensure that all the students understand the purpose and procedure of each experiment. Faculty like Dr. Craig helps remind us how important it is to care. With his determination and guidance, we have had the opportunity to soar above our own expectations.
Dr. Weiwen Long
Dr. Long is one of the co-investigators (co-Is) for the Wright State iGEM team. He has helped to guide the daily activities of the lab team. He serves as a technical resource for the team’s laboratory research, including assisting the team in experimental design, troubleshooting and data interpretation.
Dr. Amy Breedon
Dr. Amy Breedon was essential to the success of this year's team. She met with students to talk them through multiple experimental processes, biochemical pathways, and the design of our constructs. Dr. Breedon spent time showing students how to gather correct sequences to order a gene block. She weighed in on experimental results and troubleshooting, along with iGEM criteria and clarifications. Dr. Breedon has mentored the Wright State iGEM team in 2021 and the Carroll High School team in previous years as well. She has been incredibly influential to this years team and we are so thankful for her support.
Dr. Michael Goodson
Dr. Michael Goodson has mentored iGEM teams for 5 years. His edperience from attending past jamborees has been instrumental in helping us prepare for our own presentation. He gives great input on how to tell the story of your project along with other presentation questions that the team has.
Dr. Chia Hung
Dr. Chia Hung is also an iGEM alumni and has been remarkably helpful to the team. He has shared his experiences from previous years and what he has seen other teams do, helping to give us an idea of what is expected of us. Dr. Hung has been monumentally helpful during this iGEM season and essential to our success as a team.
Dr. Claretta Sullivan
In 2014, she became a Civilian employee at AFRL. As program manager, she facilitates collaborations within multi-discipline teams of researchers involving scientists within AFRL as well as those from academia and national laboratories. Her current research is focused on using self-assembled bacteria as the basis of ordered materials. She also uses her expertise in biological atomic force microscopy to support the Biological Materials and Processes Research Team. She has published over 15 peer-reviewed articles including original research papers, scientific reviews and a book chapter.Having grown up in the Mississippi Delta region, where opportunities to engage in science are so limited, she values programs like iGEM where students can be informed and excited through their participation. She is an ardent supporter of the Wright State iGEM team and helps to guide their decision-making.
Dr. Madhavi Kadakia
Dr. Dr. Kadakia is the principal investigator (PI) for the Wright State iGEM team. She is a strong proponent of STEM education and research, and an advocate and cheerleader for the WrightState team. Madhavi plays a huge supporting role behind the scenes making sure the team has the physical, financial, and intellectual resources they need to complete their project. She has been a technical resource for the team’s project management efforts and in their day-to-day bench research. She has also helped to connect the team with potential stakeholders and experts in the field.
Mike Ekberg
A hydrogeologist, Mike has been with MCD since 2000. He is responsible for all MCD operations concerning the collection of water quantity and quality data. Before coming to MCD, Mike worked as a hydrogeologist for the Ohio EPA and as a staff geologist for Dames and Moore in Cincinnati. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, a Master of Science degree in geology from the University of Cincinnati, and an MBA — with an emphasis on project management — from Wright State University. (Pulled from mcdwater.org/resources/staff-bios/mike-ekberg/)
Michael Adams
Michael Adams, a founder of Robinson and Adams agreed to meet with us and talk about our specific project and proposed implentation. Our team of students and mentors traveled to the office building and met with Mr. Adams and two other leaders in the company. We shared our presentation with them, and the feedback they gave was very helpful in perfecting our presentation methods. He was great help in allowing us to see what the enduser is looking for and he also provided a great opportunity for the students of our team.