Team:William and Mary/Engagement


Community Engagement

Connecting with Legislators
The William & Mary iGEM team, based out of the Bioengineering Lab, often acts as representatives for our institution's science programs. Because The College of William & Mary is a public institution, the programs here rely on funding from the Virginia state government. The important scientific that occurs here, including research by W&M iGEM, would not be possible without this funding.


Virginia Senator Janet Howell

On May 31, Senator Howell, a member of the Virginia Senate Finance Subcommittee on Education, visited the Bioengineering Lab to talk to us about our iGEM research. Christine, Sejal, and Callan represented our team and our school.

Virginia Senator Richard Saslaw

On May 31, Senator Saslaw, the chair of the Virginia Senate Finance Subcommittee on Education, also visited our lab. Cedar and Wukun discussed our research project and the importance of the science research that occurs both in the Bioengineering Lab and at other labs at William & Mary.

U.S. Congressman Scott Taylor

On April 24th, Representative Scott Taylor visited our lab. He is the United States Representative for Virginia's 2nd Congressional District. John and Ethan talked to Representative Taylor about the importance of the research that occurs at William & Mary, both for our area of Virginia and nationally.



Boyle Society Visit
On April 29th, members of the Boyle Society, a group of individuals who help fund research at William & Mary, visited our lab. We did a strawberry DNA extraction with 50 participants and talked to them about the importance of the research that we do. Members of our team worked with participants and explained the basics of synthetic and molecular biology. We also briefly explained our iGEM project and its importance for the field of synthetic biology.