AlumniGEM/Mentorship/Coordinators

Our Directors

Alyssa Henning


Cornell iGEM 2009, 2010
After graduating from Cornell in 2011, I interned at Ginkgo BioWorks for one year. I am currently a Ph.D. candidate at Penn State University.
  • Hobbies: Running, playing taiko (Japanese drums), and translating clarinet skills to playing Japanese flute

Alec Lourenco

Caltech iGEM 2014
I am currently a rising senior at La Canada high school interested in synthetic biology.
  • Hobbies: iOS development, drinking tea, moviegoing, attempting to sing, and, of course, writing college apps.

Our Coordinators

Furkan Bestepe

ATOMS_Turkiye iGEM 2013, 2014
HS AUC_TURKEY iGEM 2012, 2013, 2014

I am a Student Intern in Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital until January 2016.
  • Hobbies: Computer Games, Knowing about and Criticizing Movies

Ricardo Chavez

Tec-Monterrey iGEM 2011, 2012, & 2013
I graduated from the Biotechnology Engineering program at ITESM, Mexico. I am currently working as a Laboratory Technician at my University.
  • Hobbies: playing video games (MMORPGs, RPGs, Strategy) and mixing music

Galen Gao

Caltech iGEM 2014
I am currently a rising senior at Caltech studying bioengineering.
  • Hobbies: Swimming, Water Polo, pretending I can still play the violin, wasting time on Facebook

Francis Lee

Illinois iGEM 2009, 2010, & 2011
I work at Mass Innovation Labs, setting up and running a molecular biology core facility (genomics and proteomics).
  • Hobbies: Sailing

Nisarg Patel

Arizona State iGEM 2011, 2012, & 2013
I graduated from Arizona State University in 2014 and am currently a D.M.D. candidate at Harvard University.
  • Hobbies: Traveling, Reading, and Cheering on Arizona Sports Teams

Dylan Webster

Cornell iGEM 2012
I currently work at Zymergen on the Factory team managing our QC processes for high-throughput strain construction. Prior to Zymergen, I was at E. & J. Gallo Winery, where I worked as a process development engineer.
  • Hobbies: Songwriting, cycling, and baseball analytics
The AlumniGEM Mentorship Program would like to thank The iGEM Foundation and Dr. Joanne Kamens for their support.