Team:HKUST-Rice/Team

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Meet the HKUST-Rice Team!

Cheung Ming Fung (Eric) Year 3 Biochemistry and Cell Biology Being a responsible team leader, Eric devoted lots of his time on iGEM. He is diligent and is willing to spend time to keep track on 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 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 it is alright. By looking at his confident smile, you will suddenly have a feeling of things not going that bad at all. You do not know why he can remain calm in the face of adversity and is so considerate to his teammates, asking them frequently if they need any helps. 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 active engage 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 SSCI (Undeclared) 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!

Cheng Kar On (Karen) Year 2 SSCI (Undeclared) 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.

Siu Men Yi (Mona) 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.

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 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. Getting published in the Tabor Lab soon. 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.