Team:Northwestern/Team

Nirmal Desai

Nirmal is junior double majoring in Biology and Economics at Northwestern University.

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 has given talks and poster presentations at numerous conferences, including the 2013 American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans. He was brought onboard to the iGEM team through the REU program in the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at Northwestern. He has used his modeling experience to help with the group’s modeling component of the iGEM competition while also working extensively on the group’s presentation.He learned a number of biological lab techniques this summer in order to assist with the project. 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. Never forget.

Brendan Tran

Brendan’s interest in science began to develop in the 5th grade. In high school, he realized that he was particularly interested in biology and genetics. Now, Brendan is in his 4th year at Northwestern University, double majoring in Integrated Science and Biological Sciences.

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.