Cornell iGEM

The Team

Arun Chakravorty

Most avid Cornell iGEM followers will recognize the baby-faced Arun from all the way back in 2013 when he took Boston by storm with his red polo shirts and dazzling good looks. Now, two full years later, Arun has emerged from his cocoon of boyhood as (suspense) a similar-looking child with gelled hair! Those all-nighters Arun spends in lab can’t be for the iGEM team: he must be working on some miracle anti-aging cream because while the rest of us are losing our hair, his continues to grow in lush. It’s a good thing Arun has remained dedicated to the team, however; at this rate, the Cornell iGEM team in 100 years will still be consulting Arun. Maybe then he’ll be having his first shave.

Casey Zhang

If Casey were a Pokemon, she would be Jigglypuff. Found in the lush green plains between Route 115 and Ithaca, Casey’s charm is super effective against any foe. Her special abilities include captivating bystanders with her huge round eyes, and lulling the manliest of men to sleep with her gentle lullaby. Her friendly nature makes her the ideal Wetlab team member. After a tragic accident covered the floors of Weill in blue loading dye, legend has it that she spent countless nights scrubbing the mile long hall with a single paper towel. Casey draws her positivity from her diet consisting of baked goods and bibimbap burritos. On one unfortunate occasion, she was poisoned with a Jalapeno pepper hidden deep within an enchilada. Witnesses say that she swelled to a round pink ball and to this day she maintains a deep-seated aversion to anything spicy. Although this remains her sole weakness, Casey’s copious strengths allow her to lead a team of less evolved Igglybuffs, all of whom would be nowhere without her.

Gargi Ratnaparkhi

See George.

George Danias

See Gargi.

Grace Chuang

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That miniprepped in the AM for me.
While she is a bubbling spirit in the lab and a friend in our hearts, Grace is not a force to be reckoned with. Whether it’s an adamant army of ants raiding her kitchen or plasmids refusing to cooperate, Chief Chuang is always ready to take on any challenge. An active member of CRU and close friends with Bill Nye the science dude, Grace is basically a manifestation of the positivity and friendliness exuded by a playful breeze on an Ithacan summer’s day. Her loyalty, however, isn’t fickle like the winds of the Northeast; rather, she finds herself at all hours tirelessly working in the lab, often jamming to numerous sick beats, until we have to physically kidnap her and dose her with Starbucks to bring her back to the real world. She co-leads the Policy and Practices subteam and is ready to cure the world’s diseases. A master of photography, you can find this kind soul wandering through gardens and Farmer’s Markets, trying to catch the sunlight in just the right way, before she captures an image only surpassed by a Van Gogh.

Grace Livermore

Grace Livermore is a powder blue tang. Outsiders regard her for her pleasant, unassuming countenance, but we Cornell iGEMers know that this fireball can zip, dart, and dive amongst the coral towers faster than most other fish. Among the reefs she patented her optimistic motto, “Just keep swimming”, and she’s still a little bitter that tedious blue tang with the naïve clownfish friend stole it. Naturally an intellectual (she’s been feeding on brain coral her entire life), Grace is an integral part of our policy and practices subteam. She cares very deeply about her fishy friends and wants to help develop programs to mitigate the harmful effects of bacterial cold water disease. Grace is a true team player—she cares about the salmon she’s saving, even though they aren’t nearly as tangy as her.

Hao Yan

How does one describe Hao? He is an enigma, never here nor there but always present. You’ll often see a shadow in the lab space and wonder, “Is that Hao?” But when you go closer, he’s not there. How did he leave? Through the door? Is that how? Hao is incredibly smart and knowledgable in all things biology, one of the best additions to our wetlab team. He is also very friendly and always willing to give a helping hand. Unknown to most of the team, Hao is also a full-time astronaut gymnast and performs in the outer atmosphere every other weekend. He volunteers at a shelter for underprivileged bears and cooks delicious tortillas. How does he have time for all these hobbies while still being captain of the Yellow Submarine? We don’t know. How, Hao? How?

Jane Liao

Our ever loving sweet Jane has a subtle yet undeniable charm. On a blue sky, lazy Saturday afternoon, you can see her strolling down campus with her BB sidekick on the lookout for birds and squirrels terrorizing sidewalks. After saving the day and bringing smiles to countless passerby, you can find her tinkering away diligently at CUiGEM. Not just cloning, but Corning-bots that run and twirl and...wait, did it just pass gas? Ahem, well, where did Jane come from? How did she end up at CUiGEM? Rumors have it that she was a young duckling with amazing wit and intelligence, but nobody noticed it. One day, she was zipping through the rapids of Canada when she saw something fishy glimmering in the water. A rainbow trout was stuck under a rock. Using her bill as a lever, she saved the rainbow fish and in return, was given a wishing scale. Jane turned herself into a girl. Finally, everyone would not see her as a quack. She established a tech company tech for saving lost ducklings and became an international idol. But one day, she looked into the water and saw her rainbow friend again. The trouts were in trouble, and this time, it was more crushing than a little rock. Jane embarked on an adventure to CUiGEM in search for a solution. Or so rumors say.

Jonlin Chen

The annals of modern history have largely been written by illustrious American leaders, from George Washington to Ronald Reagan. In 2015, Jonlin Chen joined those venerated ranks. As team leader for this year's competition season, she has addressed the multifarious setbacks associated with modern lab work with an admirable aplomb. However, iGEM is only the beginning. Having been born in the giddy years immediately following the much-celebrated demise of the USSR, Jonlin has watched the rise of new threats to American dominance with concern and hostility.With destabilizing challenges to American primacy more pernicious than ever before, she is biding her time, waiting for the moment to seize the ultimate mantle of power. When Jonlin assumes her rightful place at the top of Executive Branch, fires of liberation will envelop the globe. There can be only one.

Kevin Hui

Kevin Hui is a snowflake clownfish. He’s always quick to crack a joke, and his unique sense of humor is always good for a laugh. A very amiable fish, he was the perfect choice for the Cornell iGEM team’s social chair. Kevin created new team events and put his own clowny twist on some Cornell iGEM classics to make sure the entire team enjoyed their time outside of the lab. Kevin resides in a sea anemone (obviously), so he’s immune from the harmful effects of BCWD. He was the perfect choice to lead the crusade against Flavobacterium, and he worked this year to characterize the effects of ecnB proteins on that nasty bacteria. We thank Kevin for his sacrifice. It takes a lot of effort to wage two simultaneous battles: one against a deadly bacteria, the other against our team’s desire to never leave lab.

Michelle Zhang

The smell of smoke accompanies the light crackle of flames welcomes you into the lab. You look down. Ashes cover the singed earth, burnt protocol sheets tumbling across the barren ground. You look back up. The lab benches have been blackened with soot, with only rectangular patch untouched – the place where a macbook once sat. A small fire is still burning on the farthest chair, and a pen has been left slightly melted on the table top. In the corner, the local pyromaniac cowers and whimpers. Who, or what, could have done this? Her name is Michelle Zhang, and she isn’t here to play games. Don’t let her INFJ disposition fool you - 50% human, 50% goddess, and 73% multitasking unicorn, she’s so awesome her genetic make-up can’t be confined to 100%. So inhumanely efficient and on top of her game, she blazes through work so fast it catches fire. She leaves scorch marks in the sidewalk as she sprints between Weill and Riley-Robb. She lifts 50lb jugs of LB every morning to maintain her towering build, and runs a distance equivalent to two trips around the moon in her daily lab to lab commute. Her meals consist of deviously efficient jars of pasta, shaken together with tomato sauce and the blood of her enemies. Michelle’s here to get work done and make bad puns, and she’s all out of work.

Neema Patel

"import java.awt.List;
public class Neema {
private String year,subteam;
private List languages;
private int MagicNumber;
public boolean csld; // Can she legally drink?

public Neema() {
year = ""Class of 2016"";
subteam = ""Dry Lab"";
languages.add(""English""); // hello
languages.add(""Gujarati""); // હેલો
languages.add(""French""); // Bonjour
MagicNumber = Integer.MAX_VALUE; // Neema's leg length
csld = true;
}

public boolean doesNeemaHaveCoffeeWithHer(){
if (HaveCSClass == true || LookEnergetic == true){
return true;
}
else if (HaveCSClass == true || AlmostFallAsleep == true) {
return false;
}
else if (NeedToMeetSomebodyAtLabspace){
return false;
}
else{
return null;
System.out.println(""Depends on how I feel today!"");
}
}
}
"

Joseph Fridman

The year was 1989. Even as the Cold War raged on, the USSR and the ideology it represented were in their death throes. In an act of desperation, the Politburo sought to develop a new propaganda apparatus, hoping that by effectively spreading pro-Soviet sentiment worldwide support for the enfeebled superpower would increase, and the tides would turn. To that end, Joseph Fridman was created. With a disarming kindness and an extraordinary intellect, he was capable of convincing anyone whom he spoke to that the path to prosperity was painted red. After a battery of evaluations, Fridman was sent to America with the goal of neutralizing it as an adversary to communism. However, upon arrival in the US, he was staggered by the wealth and majesty of the republic. After thinking it through, he decided to defect to the capitalist West. Without his assistance, the Soviet empire soon collapsed. Now an American citizen, the former sleeper agent has settled down, studying psychology at Cornell University (with the obvious purpose of honing his power of persuasion) and working to convince the population of Ithaca of the preeminence of CUGEM.

Ryan Ashley

There are rumors. People say things – see things – around our labs. Blonde-haired apparitions float in and out of the corners of our eyes. Visions of a gentle smile flash through team members’ minds. Perfect gels appear on the countertop, and despite the immaculate labeling, no one knows who ran them. One team member, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that on one quiet lonely afternoon as he walked by one of the sinks, he noticed it was dirty, caked with mud and beakers strewn about. Since he was the only one in the lab at the time, he decided to clean it up, but when he turned to look at the sink again, it was completely cleaned! There is agreement among the team that something … else lurks in our workspace. We’ve taken to calling our mysterious helper “Ryan” (the name just seemed to fit). We don’t know what it is or what it wants, but we do know our project wouldn’t be half as well done without it.

Rishabh Singh

They speak of a man learned beyond all others, unbound by mortal flesh. For eons, he wandered this plane, seeking new pleasures to satisfy his ageless conscience. Nothing was outside his grasp. In his wake, nations fell, civilizations flourished, and as always, the women swooned. Gradually, through the thousands of millennia, this man’s true name of power was lost to the shifting sands of time. But, word among the people speak of a him currently residing in Cornell University, assuming the identity of “Rishabh”, though veterans of the field know this is simply one of the many guises he has chosen. He currently dedicates himself to the Cornell iGEM team, lending an eternity of knowledge to this humble project team. When he is not gracing his presence in the iGEM lab space, he prefers the quiet sanctity of the indoors, proving himself among the best in the FPS gaming, his years as a skilled military tactician rendering his enemies little more than a mob of confused toddlers. Legend also speaks of his legendary pie making skills, though few live to tell the tale of a pie of such high caliber, as the sheer ecstasy of tasting one of these legendary morsels causes the human body to permanently cease function (in some parts of the world, death in such a way is considered an honorable one). This biography serves as more than just a record, it is a herald, a warning for times to come. The one named Rishabh is powerful beyond measure, though his current form may be unassuming. Woe to those that stand in his way, as he is not known to be merciful. The last recorded time his wrath was incurred, the Black Death occurred. Not even the very best of heroes can even dream of facing his final form, which is also known to be incredible sassy. So beware, beware to all those who hope to undermine his efforts. In even the most secretive of moments, do not forget. He won’t.

Ritvik Sarkar

What is the Ritvik? I'm glad you asked. Ritvik used to be our team's secret secret nonlethal weapon, until a series of not completely unrelated explosions and earthquakes alerted national media to its existence. Ritvik is the original prototype for our project, with its 20 micron filter hair outperforming all competition. We are still struggling to develop a successor that has even half the ability to make wet things into dry things. Capable of building models to ensure our team's success as well as other smaller ventures such as hostile takeover of midwestern states, Ritvik is an essential component of our team. Without its capabilities as a replacement pump system, we would be incapable of surmounting the one foot of head that stalls our team's inevitable victory.

Swati Sureka

You'd remember when you first met her, in lab. It's pretty striking at first: She [Swati] sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and she knows well every quiver of each of them. Beakers, notebooks, laptops, disembodied voices, bits and pieces of cardboard, flora and fauna of the like that have never been seen before on Planet Earth - all circle her in the air, flying around like so many transporters, enzymes, and cellular automata. She does little herself. She only plans. But her agents are numerous and splendidly organised. Is there research to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a block of DNA to be characterized, a project to be undertaken - the word is passed to the SWATi Team, the matter is organised and carried out. And if that all sounds a little intimidating, have no fear: Swati is sworn by oath to the Old Gods and the New to defend, advance, and justify through feats of meaningful scientific accomplishment the existence of human life. Just make sure you don't forget to pay your social dues...