Meet the Rose-Hulman 2015 iGEM Team!

RHIT is an institution dedicated to education in the STEM fields. The iGEM team at RHIT was started by Dr. Ric Anthony in 2011, and is the inspiration behind two exciting seminar classes on synthetic biology during the year.

The 2015 RHIT iGEM team consisted of four undergraduate students from the Biology and Biomedical Engineering department. Read each team member’s individual biography below!

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Dani Bauhan

Dani is a member of the graduating Class of 2016, an active member of Chi Omega, and the Historian and Events Coordinator of RHIT's Tri Beta chapter. She is a Biology and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology double major from Indiana, and is excited for Graduate School to focus on Molecular Biology. She enjoys long nights in the lab, a good micro-pipette, and when transformations work the first time. She was the student leader of the team, and guided the team with her experience from the 2014 competition.

Chris Kibler

Chris is a Biomedical Engineer graduating in 2017. Originally from Illinois, he is a member of the varsity soccer team and a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society. Along with Soccer, he likes to work out, go skydiving, and hopes to get into paintballing. His goal is to work in the BioInstrumentation field upon graduation. His contribution to the team included development of the Wiki and work with documentation.

Mike Plaskett

Mike is a Biology major graduating in 2017. Hailing from Indiana, he hopes to pursue a degree in Pharmacy after his time at Rose. Mike is an active member of the school’s Alpha Chi Sigma and Tri Beta Chapters. His many passions include virology, immunology, the Chicago Bears, and video games. In the lab, he was mainly involved in making media and assisting in protocols such as digests and transformations.

Nick Edwards

Nick is a Biology and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology double major from Columbus, Indiana and plans to graduate in 2017. He hopes to enter a MD/PhD program and perform clinical research. Outside of academics, Nick is the vice president of service of the Alpha Phi Omega chapter at Rose-Hulman, and is also a member in Alpha Chi Sigma and Tri Beta. His contributions include reviewing primary literature and assisting Dani in the lab on occasion, as well as designing the graphics used by the team.

Dr.Ric Anthony

Dr. Anthony teaches genetics, cell and molecular biology. His research interests focus on ribosome structure and function. He is a champion of using synthetic biology and iGEM as mediums for interdisciplinary education of undergraduates.

"Synthetic biology has the potential to address many of humanity's grand challenges. iGEM provides rich opportunities to foster the creative and critical thinking skills, and aptitude for interdisciplinary collaboration and team work, that are essential to realizing the discipline's full potential. I find it invigorating to be involved in such a worthy endeavor."

Dr.David Goulet

Dave Goulet teaches and studies mathematical biology. His research interests are in cellular and molecular biology and biochemistry. He’s an avid rock climber and is the faculty advisor for the Rose-Hulman rock climbing club.

"Biological systems often exhibit immense complexity and richness of behavior. The power of applied mathematics lies in its diverse set of tools capable of describing, analyzing, and making predictions regarding the behavior of complex systems. In this sense, synthetic biology is a vast and fascinating playground for applied mathematicians. I’m proud and excited to participate in iGEM. It gives me a chance to foster the development of the next generation of mathematically aware synthetic biologists." "