The right team makes all the difference. Fortunately, the Purdue iGEM team has everything you could hope for.

Amanda Shanley

Amanda Shanley, preferably known as Amanda Pearl or just Pearl, is finishing up her fifth and last here at Purdue. She will be graduating in May 2014 with bachelors in both biological engineering and biochemistry. This is her second year on the team. Some of the things that make her happy are picking wild flowers, reading a good science fiction book, and spending quality time with family and friends. Because her family owns an orchard in small town Denver, Indiana, Amanda can name over 20 different varieties of apples off the top of her head from Almata to Shenango to Zestar.

Chris Thompson

Chris actually has huge writer’s block due to Charlotte’s bio being so much cooler than he could think of. He has been doing iGEM since high school and was on the team that won the first ever high school iGEM jamboree. Currently Chris is a sophomore and a biological engineering major at Purdue University. People seem to like Chris because he’s polite and rarely late. He likes to eat ice cream and really enjoys a nice pair of slacks. He also enjoys books, long bike adventures, and animals. Chris dislikes close-minded people, the letter w, and the state of Texas. Chris enjoys volunteering as a Big Brother and at his local Humane Society. Chris spends most of his time in iGEM sending obnoxious emails to other teams. Chris hopes to one day fulfill his childhood dream of ruling planet Earth. But if that doesn’t work out, he’d also settle with starting a company in Colorado!

James Nolan

James, or Jim, has just begun his third year of biological engineering at Purdue. He's the secretary of the Purdue iGEM team. Despite his best efforts to remain exclusively in the mathematical and computational side of the team, he fell into becoming Purdue iGEM's primary cloner. Jim's technical interests include synthetic multicellularity, biosensors and DIYbio. With his fellow iGEMer, Peter Mercado, he is starting a web- and eventually community-lab-based hub for DIYbio and STEM education in Indianapolis. Jim has a pet giraffe named Sally who lives in the Happy Hollow Park near Purdue's West Lafayette campus.

Peter Mercado

Peter is a junior in biochemistry and entrepreneurship. He thoroughly enjoys a good drama series like House of Cards, Ray Donovan and The Mentalist. Peter likes to go to the gym, stroll campus on late nights and chill on weekends. He has had a variety of internships at Institutes, Corporations, and universities but overall thinks hell end up starting multiple business with his friends. Peter learned this about himself after working with iGEM as treasurer! His life goal is to retire his mom then move to Dominican Republic and live off the land. If you really want to bond with Peter find an isolated spot and an stimulating topic and he'll be yours for life.

Nidhi Menon

Nidhi (also called Needy by her International friends, just because) is now a junior, majoring in biological engineering and minoring in biotechnology. She’s originally from one of the most fun to be places in the world- Mumbai, India. She plays Badminton with the Purdue Badminton Club and occasionally enjoys swimming, volleyball, soccer and basketball. Don’t be deceived by her tender looks, she has a blue belt in Karate and does not hesitate in showing off her skills. (This is a subtle warning for Chris) She enjoys adventure sports and has been river rafting, skydiving, paragliding and mountain biking! She also plans to go scuba diving in the following year! Apart from having a keen interest in forensic science and genetic engineering, she also enjoys history, exploring new places and learning new languages. She is fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam and French, and is now in the process of learning Arabic. She loves animals and has had a little red crested bulbul, a european shorthair and a labrador as pets. You probably already know that she talks a lot about herself but there’s one more little thing you have got to know and it is by far the most important one. Everything else aside, she still does not know the purpose of life which means you should never take her too seriously!

Xiuyuan Yang

Xiuyuan Yang is also known as Tim because his first name is hard to pronounce. Xiuyuan is now a senior majoring in biological engineering. Xiuyuan is from Nanjing, China, where the city shares a similar climate with West Lafayette. Xiuyuan likes reading books in a quiet environment, he does not care too much about the content, read for read.... Besides, Xiuyuan practices martial arts, a very controversial hobby, but he did not involve in any violence events! He has numerophobia actually.

Charlotte Hoo

Charlotte is a sophomore in biomedical engineering from the Windy City (Chicago), which is fitting because she loves to sail! Despite her passion, she is very afraid of deep water, an interesting mix… Charlotte has an identical twin, so if something ever goes wrong, it was her twin’s fault! If Charlotte is not running or biking, you can probably find her eating, thinking about what to eat, or sleeping. Did you know that Charlotte can breakdance? Probably not, because she can’t. But learning to breakdance is on her lifelong agenda!

Alec Gorge

Alec is a sophomore in computer science. He is originally from Minneapolis, MN but has also lived in Alpharetta, GA, Carmel, IN, Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia. He loves building awesome iPhone apps and websites, and is an avid music lover and reader. He is particularly fond of listening to Phish and Grateful Dead, playing the piano and reading books of all varieties. You might run into him playing basketball at the rec.

Austin Hogan

Clarence-Austin J. Hogan, or as our team knows him, Austin, is a junior from Tuskegee University who is studying biology. He joined the Purdue iGEM team through the HHMI program where he looked at the statistical analysis of the data we collected. He enjoys fishing, the occasional paintball game, and camping in the great outdoors. One crazy fun fact about Austin is that he enjoys driving his truck through the mud with friends while drinking sweet tea at the same time. His idea of a perfect Friday would be to mud ride after taking a test, eat a light dinner, then go fishing, cook the fish, and camp out over night.

Betsy Benner

Betsy is a junior in biological engineering. This is her first year on the iGEM team and she is working on the Human Practices aspect of the project. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, running, and watching movies.

Ryan Wagner

Ryan is a junior in biological engineering. He has been on the iGEM team since sophomore year, where he worked on the Human Practices aspect of the project. Originally from sunny Fort Lauderdale, he enjoys fishing, wakeboarding, going to the beach (which sadly isn't much of an option in Indiana), and working out. He also really enjoys cooking and grilling. His specialty? Steak and guacamole.

Swetha Vinjimoor

Swetha Vinjimoor is a junior majoring in biological engineering and is also pursuing the pre-dental track. This is her first year on the iGEM team and is working on the human practices aspects of the project. Some of her favorite hobbies include singing, reading and hanging out with her friends. She particularly enjoys singing Indian classical music and has given vocal performances at various events and places (such as California, Ohio, India, etc). Oh, and she also loves roller coasters!! Six flags and Cedar Point are two of her favorite amusement parks. One crazy fact about her is that she has never had meat in her life (ever!), and is actually pretty proud of it.