Team:HKUST-Rice/Team

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Meet the HKUST-Rice Team!

HKUST-Rice iGEM 2015 is a large team! HKUST-Rice iGEM 2015 team is composed of 31 student members- 18 from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and 13 from Rice University; and 4 instructors, 2 from each university. Our team is the first cross continental team in iGEM. The benefit of forming a large joint team is that we have members from different fields who contribute different perspectives to the project.

Greetings from HKUST!

Ming Fung CHEUNG (Eric) Year 3 Biochemistry and Cell Biology As a responsible team leader, Eric devoted a lot of his time to iGEM. He is diligent and willing to spend time to keep track of each modules’ progress. (EVERY SINGLE STEP, to be precise.) While performing lab tasks, Eric is extremely focused and serious. However, the other side of him has a hidden sense of humor. He can keep his blank chipmunk-like expressions while suddenly coming up with a one-liner that makes everyone burst into laughter. He also has a STRONG obsession with riboregulator.

NG, Siu Wang (Edward) Year 3 Biotechnology Edward is a gentleman. When you feel confused and discouraged by challenges, he will always say that it is alright. By looking at his confident smile, you will suddenly have a feeling of things not going that bad at all. We do not know how he can remain calm in the face of adversity and is so considerate to his teammates, asking them frequently if they need any help. It is great to have Edward, who is like a wise man, in our team!

Rina Sakata Year 2 Biochemistry and Cell Biology A highly perseverant and smart teammate who actively engages in the project planning and laboratory work. But if you are really working with her then you might see her as a girl that brings lots of vitality to the team. Her open-hearted character together with her always-on smiley face make her easily approachable to everyone. So, be ready to be impressed for her uniquely cheerful personality at the first glance.

Khandaker Samiha Year 2 Life Science Samiha is a really sweet girl and you can feel it especially when she smiles at you and blink her eyes. She is in the expression platform group where she ran a lot of gel and did a lot of checking to make sure every step is reliable and successful. She is also in the graphic design group, where she designed our team logo and other beautiful works with the other girls. Just like the color of the clothes that she loves to wear, she is a bright girl and makes you want to smile back at her!

Kar On CHENG (Karen) Year 2 Life Science Karen works very hard in the lab. She is among the earliest who go to lab and always the last to leave. She works carefully to make sure things are going smoothly.

Men Yi Mona SIU Year 3 Biochemistry and Cell Biology Mona is an intelligent graphic designer for our team logos and T-shirt, especially profession in re-filling colors of logos using painting software. She is very patient and helpful in modifying the wiki slider background-color in every trial. While doing lab work, she highly focuses on her work to make sure everything goes right. However, the only point that everyone urges her to improve on is her eating speed. She eats really slowly and everyone has to wait for her.

Tam Lut Fei (Phoebe) Year 3 Biochemistry and Cell Biology Phoebe is an affable and joyful person, when we went crazy on building our constructs, she is always the one who calm us down. She is also named “human incubator” as she cannot feel the cold. I think most of us could remember that she wore a T-shirt in winter while most of us were wearing a thick down jacket. So, if our incubator is run out of space, we could always give our things for incubation to her!!!

YIU PEI TUNG STEPHANIE Year 3 Biotechnology Stephanie boosts up the intense lab atmosphere with her humorous jokes. Her making up cute stories for remembering each protocol helps her group mates go through each day without panicking. Days when she catches a cold are the lucky days in lab as she uses her Mickey Mouse voice to speak. Her intentional frown face in every photo makes it easy to spot her. The girl who is also known as the “gel smasher” has another side which is a very independent and confident girl but yet helps others by her own will. A multi tasked and a valuable member every team needs.

Brian Anugerah Urip Year 2 Life Science Brian is a year 2 student who is so passionate in Biotechnology. He is smart, calm, and he can put everything under control. He is a good listener and he like to give ideas to help others. He tries his best to help the members in the lab every time he has done his lab work. He loves eating dessert and he really likes Dinosaurs. Although he always says that he can’t speak mandarin, but it turned out that he is very good in mandarin and he even got A+ in the Chinese course in HKUST.

Lok Yi TANG (Mandy) Year 3 Biotechnology Mandy the girl with the signature braided hair, is a kind-hearted person who is always willing to answer people’s questions. Though is you get to know her well, you will realise that she often makes pretty random comments. Despite probably living furthest away from lab amongst the team, her passion brings her to lab one of the earliest in the morning. She also shows her creativity as one of the person in charge of the graphic design.

Ka Man TAM (Sabrina) Year 3 Biotechnology Sabrina Tam is so friendly and adorable! She greets and gives her bright smile to everyone. Apart from being friendly, Sabrina is also a determined person. As a determined person, she does really well in the laboratory. She loves working in the lab! She spends a lot of time discussing and doing the lab works with all her pretty teammates. She is also one of the wiki page team members. She always reminds everyone about the progress of our wiki page. By the way, she looks much younger! ;)

Felicia Samin Year 2 Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Feli is an Indonesian sophomore majoring in Chemical Engineering and also the secretary of this year’s team. She is a cheerful and a joyful person, she laughs a lot. She loves animals so much that she once had a peculiar pet of a kangaroo!! yes youre not reading it wrong, it’s a kangaroo!

Qingyang Wang (Alice) Year 2 Biochemistry and Cell Biology Alice always smiles. She is optimistic when facing any situation. Sometimes, she uses different methods in the lab and everything work fine. It is a great chance to learn from her experience.

To Yee Ki (Alice) Year 2 Civil and Environmental Engineering Alice is very amiable and helpful. She is always ready to help, in case you have a difficulty. She always talks about the mental health first aid course she attended, you may find her if you are stressed in the lab. Karen thinks people will find it’s lucky to have a friend like her.

Ho Yin Thomas Lee Year 3 Biochemistry and Cell Biology Thomas is a person who is highly intelligent. Sometimes you might be confused by his brilliant ideas but he will kindly explain to you. By the way, he is so tall that you are able to recognise him at a glance. Though you have to speak with your head up, you will find the conversation really interesting.

Chan Lok Chun (Justin) Year 2 Life Science Justin is a kind and patient boy who is passionate in science. He is always willing to listen and teach his teammates.

Amanda Liusnando Year 2 Life Science Amanda, a first-year science strident, who is deemed to be a crazy and surprising person -- ugh...to be more specific, a crazily diligent and surprisingly humble girl -- she wake up at 7:00 a.m. every day and appear in MBMS lab strictly at (or before?) 9:00!! (Well, at least it seems to be impossible for ordinary guys to accomplish this) Besides, being a workaholic, she never stop working at lab, and always ask 'what other things should we do now?' after finishing the lab work of the day; while Justin and Brian have already been playing with their smart phones...:0)

Agnieszka Monika Lesniak Year 2 Biochemistry and Cell Biology Agnieszka is a Polish who somehow ended up in Hong Kong. One of her favourite procedure in the lab is microwaving the agarose solution to make gel for gel electrophoresis. Outside the lab she likes cats, eating ice cream and going trampolining. Her catchphrase is “ oh my God thats disgusting”

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Welcome to Rice!

Kendall Burks Year 3 Biochemistry and Cell Biology Kendall is a rising junior studying Biochemistry and Cell Biology. As a plant researcher/enthusiast, she is excited to be part of a collaborative iGEM Team working on NPK sensors (which can help plants!). Additionally, she excels strongly in sending e-mails and discussing policy and human practices while staying organized. When Kendall’s not in lab or studying for the MCAT, she can be seen playing tennis for the club team or working out in the gym like a BOSS. Additionally, she is my enabler by supplying me with an endless stream of yummy potato chips.

Steven Hao-Jen Chen Year 2 Bioengineering Steven, a rising sophomore born and raised in the island of Taiwan, is an optimist who is absolutely in love with Rice experience. He is generally a laid-back person who’s up for anything interesting and loves meeting new people, trying out new things, and hanging out. Having a great passion for Biology, Steven enjoys doing lab work and is fascinated by the countless intricacies and opportunities that life offers. If not studying, the usual Steven can be seen jogging(WHAT??), hanging out with friends, and singing in a Rice A Cappella group called “The Apollos.” Steven cannot say no to Japanese food and the presence of shiba inus, and he strongly believes in the motto “work hard, play hard.”

Yongin Choi Year 3 Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering with Minor in Biochemistry and Cell Biology On the outside, Yongin appears quiet, but he is a lean, mean cloning machine. Yongin, though a CHBE, takes difficult Biochemistry courses such as Biochemistry 1 and 2, notoriously hard at Rice University. He handles the classes with ease and calm, similar to the way that he works in the Segatori Lab. In his own way, Yongin is humorous and an active member of the Tea Enthusiasts Association.

Nikola Dyulgyarov Year 2 Bioengineering Member of Will Rice College. Avid photographer. Incredibly smart. Works in the Tabor Lab. No further description necessary.

John Luke Garcia Year 2 Physics with Minor in Biochemistry and Cell Biology John Luke is excited to go to Hong Kong and work on the NPK Project! Outside of lab, he loves to sing -- he’s in an a cappella group called the “Rice Philharmonics.”

Veronica Gough Year 4 Bioengineering Veronica left her native Southern California habitat to study bioengineering in Houston, TX. She spends most of her days in lab engineering viruses (don’t worry, they’re the not-gonna-kill-you kind). She’s always dancing, be it on the football field where she is captain of the dance team, in the library trying to memorize a complicated signaling pathway, or in lab during a wait step. She loves to be busy, which is good because school, lab, and dance consume most of her time. But, when she does get a break, Veronica enjoys reading fantasy novels, doing hot yoga, and eating yummy food with her friends (see picture).

Kenny Groszman Year 3 Bioengineering He describes himself as “tall, dark, muscular, and a liar”. Born in Argentina and residing in sunny South Florida, his aspiration for college was to escape the heat-- he ended up in Houston. On the rare occasion where he leaves the Bioscience Research Collaborative, the site of all of his bioengineering classes and his research lab, he enjoys rock climbing and being involved at his residential college.

Margaret Lie Year 3 Biochemistry and Cell Biology Margaret, a rising junior, is pursuing a degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. A Louisiana native, Margaret has made Rice University her second home--specifically the lab where she works as an obliging slave to her constructs. If she’s not in the lab, you’ll probably find her lending academic pearls of wisdom to her fellow students as a peer advisor and teaching assistant. She enjoys many forms of entertainment in her (limited!) spare time--anything from refined orchestral performances to daring acrobatic feats posted on YouTube. (We suspect she’s collecting data on how to become the next American Ninja Warrior.) Margaret is incredibly excited to contribute to the revival of the Rice iGEM team--the school’s first since 2008--thanks to the support of HKUST!

Shilpa Nataraj Year 4 Biochemistry and Cell Biology & Psychology Shilpa Nataraj a.k.a. Snoopy a.k.a. one of the nicest people in the world is not a cut-throat pre-med (though she is pre-med). She’s the head of the Rice @ HKUST group. She has been to exotic places such as India and Dubai. Although she’s from Cupertino, she claims to be from San Jose (which angers our friend Albert). Also, whenever you have the chance, ask her about her Clipboard Club - you might get inducted into the cult.

Lara Pferdehirt Year 4 Bioengineering Lara stayed in Texas to study bioengineering, but she tries to sneak off to her second-home, Istanbul, every chance she gets. Lara spends most of her time in lab engineering proteins. She can flow like no other, flow cytometry that is. Outside of school and lab, Lara enjoys spending time with friends, going on adventures around Houston (mainly in search of new places to eat), and watching Netflix. She needs coffee to function, and whenever there’s a cat around she finds a way to befriend it, making her a self-proclaimed cat whisperer.

Ashkan Rohani Year 2 Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Who is the true Ashkan? We shall never know. All that we can gather is that he is a resident of Martel College and works in the Warmflash Lab.

Dana Smith Year 2 Bioengineering Dana lives a rather average life outside of iGem. She enjoys working out in her spare time and avoiding the freshman 15; however her chubby bunny, Buckwheat, has not. Dana's weaknesses include applesauce, jello, and slushies. If she's not studying or napping, she's probably on Pinterest.

Zilu Peter Tang Year 2 Bioengineering Some say he swam to the US from China without stopping. Some say he invented a teleporter and teleported over to the US, but promptly destroyed it because why not? Others say he disguised himself as a normal person and flew over here like the rest of us normal folk. But one thing is for certain, this originally Chinese native is in the United States. This being, or whatever you call him, spends a lot of time at the gym, perfecting his already perfectly chiseled body. He is a studious, party animal, one of the few who can go out on a Saturday night and still complete his differential equation homework afterwards at 3 am. He is currently a sophomore pursuing bioengineering at Rice University, and is already learning how to make bacteria perform his bidding. However, just like Superman has his kryptonite and Scooby Doo his Scooby snacks, Peter Tang does have his weaknesses. He cannot say no to a homemade cookie and is addicted, ADDICTED to Pirates of the Caribbean, this dude just can’t get enough.