Team:Northwestern/Team

Nirmal Desai

Nirmal is junior double majoring in Biology and Economics at Northwestern University. Prior to iGEM, Nirmal had research experience in Psychology. Nirmal’s science interests developed greatly after entering Northwestern where he was exposed to Molecular Cell Biology and Synthetic Biology greatly. In his free time, Nirmal enjoys spending time with friends and playing sports.

Samson Fong

Samson is a junior studying chemical engineering, minoring in biotechnology and biochemistry. He is still undecided about his future career, ranging anywhere from engineering to research to medical school (or a combination of the three). In addition to iGEM, he has worked in Professor Schatz’s lab working to model DNA bending around nucleosomes. Samson also enjoys playing piano and clarinet for fun. Occasionally, one can find him taking pictures of mundane objects, trying to pass it off as art.

Viral Patel

Viral Patel is a senior studying environmental engineering. Her hometown is Elmhurst, Illinois. She enjoys running, eating cheese ravioli, watching terrible movies on Syfy and painting her nails. Her special skills include playing the clarinet and wiggling her ears.

Kevin Romero

Kevin is a junior double majoring in Chemistry and Mathematics at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. He is originally from Reno, Nevada. Prior to iGEM, Kevin gained research experience at Linfield doing theoretical physical chemistry using quantum mechanical mathematical modeling under Professor Jim Diamond. He was brought onboard to the iGEM team through the REU program in the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at Northwestern. In his free time he enjoys watching and playing sports, being active outdoors, and eating and sleeping as much as any other red-blooded American male.

Brendan Tran

Brendan is majoring in Biology, Integrated Science, Chemical Engineering, and Engineering Management. Crazy, right? He's also a big fan of League of Legends and watches a million TV shows.

Simon Yang

Simon is a senior majoring in biomedical engineering at Northwestern University. He was born in Minnesota, but lived back and forth between South Korea and the US. He is interested in bio-regenerative medicine and genetics. Outside of school, he plays cello and his favorite cellist is Jacqueline du Pre.