Team:SydneyUni Australia/Team

Running to Hong Kong

Grew up on the northern beaches of Sydney where I went to Freshwater senior campus. I went to Sydney University to major in applied maths and biochemistry, and I wanna get amongst the field of mathematical biology. I’m enrolled to do my masters of applied mathematics (hopefully doing my thesis in mathematical biology) at the University of Melbourne.

Desmond is currently studying for a double major in Chemistry and Biochemistry with prospects of continuing on to do honours and a PhD in Molecular Biology. He has spent over a year working in research laboratories and is hoping to achieve a career as a researcher. One of his many dreams is to travel the world experiencing the sights and culture of various countries.

Vivian is a purple-coated megababewitch, cybersurfing biohacking and latenightsnacking for the thrill of it. Plus I'm pretty sure she owns cowboy boots.

Robbie wants to build the greenhouse we’ll need on Mars. Failing that he’ll return to the family sheep-farm, but that also seems pretty challenging, so he’s also considering ethnographic research about how Balinese shadow-puppeteers understand the concept of a gene. He can talk cash out of a money-tree and bluff his way into a molecular biology lab. He’s only seen it once, but he really digs the film ‘Frances Ha’, check it out.

I am currently studying B. Science, majoring in Microbiology at USYD. I hope to become a researcher in medical microbiology. iGEM has made university that extra bit more interesting. Recently, I discovered how exciting and rewarding bengali/bollywood dancing is. I also love food (that is perhaps an understatement!) and trying out new recipes.

21 today!

Andrew has been avoiding iGEM for years but has finally caved in. He hopes for a world where every mundane detail of life is in fact alive. A magical-garden world where biology is the grand empress and everyone knows it. He dreams of jumping through flaming sterile loops and accidentally (on purpose) made LB-agar plates with agarose. Quote of the Year – ‘Agar and agarose: they’re just like Nic and Nicholas, right?’

Five minutes after hearing about iGEM for the first time, Nick gave a ‘provisional yes’ and became our team supervisor. He’s into bioremediation and mobile genetic elements. He’s great to visit if you have bad dreams about the secondary structure of palindromic sequences. Rumour has it he used to play in a rock-band and now plays Magic the Gathering (it’s a card game for nerds, you graduate to this after Dungeons and Dragons). He also has a samurai sword and is a Safety Officer for the building. Quote of the Year - ‘We should also do replicates, as I believe these are quite popular with scientists’.