Team:REC-CHENNAI/TeamMembers
Team Members
We are a chirpy not-so-little bunch of first time iGEMers from Chennai, India. Scroll down to know more about us.
We are a chirpy not-so-little bunch of first time iGEMers from Chennai, India. Scroll down to know more about us.
VIJAY BHOOPALAN
A foodie at heart and a potato by looks, Vijay can be the nicest person in the world if he chooses to be. However, his post as a student leader required him to be the strict cop that keeps everyone in check. The second Potterhead of the team (no one can beat Nishka), Vijay would love to read minds of people. But when given an option to choose between that or eating anything without worrying about getting fat, he unblinkingly chose the latter, to no one's surprise. Though he describes himself as a modest person, when asked about his accomplishments until now, Vijay feels that they are way too many to list down. His heart's desire is to build a school of his own someday. Vijay played a crucial role in formulating our idea and the wet lab work.PREETHI THUNGA
Being the student leader of the team, Preethi primarily managed our Human Practices and collaborations apart from working in the lab. She is fascinated by the idea of engineering things at the DNA level and was responsible for designing our parts for the project. She enjoys coding as much as she loves biology and has aptly set her eyes upon computer simulations of biological models. Preethi is a vibrant little girl who likes to keep everyone around her happy. When she is not flooded with iGEM work (which is close to never), she binge-watches TV shows or stalks random cute guys on social media (beware people). Also probably the best singer in the team (in very close competition with Akash), she gives unrecoverable live performances in the lab. Let us all hope we never get to hear her sing again!SHRAVAN RAM
Shravan is a person who believes that bringing world peace is far more important than eliminating hunger and disease. He ardently loves watching action movies which then inspires him to practice his non-existent martial arts skills. Though his innermost desire is to have the ability to turn invisible and prank others, Shravan loves the ocean and everything that comes with it. He wishes to become a marine biologist one day and although he wouldn’t admit it, swim with the fishes (and that has nothing to do with being a marine biologist, of course). Shravan also loves to prance around and say his favorite phrase "it was a joke" all the time, but when it came to lab work, "it is never a joke" and "trouble shooting is always fun".VEENAH VENUGOPAL
Currently pursuing her final year in Biotechnology, Veenah loves Biology and all things related, but give her a book full of math problems, you're guaranteed to make her week in knees. For a pretty gentle soul who'd be hard pressed to throw a solid punch in self defense and who's smile is as contagious as the flu, Veenah is weirdly drawn to the most violent of crimes. Because of this though she aspires to own a biotech start up of her own one day, her ideal job would include investigating crime scenes and working in forensic labs. Apart from being hardwired to solve the most difficult of puzzles, Veenah enjoys singing a lot. She was the person in charge of managing the team's accounts.R. SAISHYAM
Being a gifted poet, Sai is one of the most creative people on the team. He’s a passionate biotechnologist, driven by his love for research. Although he may seem naive on the outside, he’s exactly the opposite on the inside and can charm his way out of any situation easily. Sai is always calm and composed and hardly ever gets agitated. His hobbies include playing cricket, reading and singing. He is a curious person by nature and looks forward to learn new lessons from every aspect in life. He is one of the most hard working people we know and was responsible for planning the lab schedules while also working in the lab diligently.RAKSHANA DAYAL
The chatterbox of the team, Rakshana can also be described as the one that giggles easily. That is the reason she hates being tickled and hence why we love doing it. Rakshana has a sweet tooth and thus its not surprising that one would always find some kind of chocolate upon her person everytime. Although Rakshana has a flawless skin herself, she loves doing projects that can treat acne. She also absolutely adores babies and weirdly loves the idea of babysitting them even more. Rakshana played an important role in carrying out the transformation experiments and was always available to work in the lab.NISHKA BHALLA
Known anyone who carries two phones and yet her Mom has to call her friends to reach her? That's Nishka for you. She has this undeniable charisma and a sense of humor that keeps us all laughing until our stomachs hurt. An avid reader who can gobble up even the biggest book within a matter of hours, Nishka houses a massive collection of books and obsesses over all things Harry Potter (In her words "Potterhead Always!"). She absolutely detests dirty feet and so she keeps them happy at all times in cute socks. She enjoys texting in animal emoticons and fasting ( read feasting) on fruits. Nishka claims to have the attention span of a goldfish, yet apparently Neuroscience and research are the only fields that can never bore her. She was the creative head of our wiki page.SRISREYA MADHALA
An amazing artist, a great keyboardist and a wannabe ballet dancer, Sreya Madhala is one of the most enthusiastic people on the team. Although her singing may scare the bejeezus out of people, she never fails to entertain us with her quirks. Fascinated by Marvin the Martian (she’d totally rock the costume), she makes use of every chance she gets to play pranks on the rest of the team and does not mind getting pranked back. Her passion towards biotechnology comes from science fiction, which she is totally obsessed with. She is focused when she needs to be and is one of the most delightful people to be around in the team. She was the person in-charge for the Interlab studies.S. ROJA RAMANY
Roja is a person who enjoys the calmness and the simplicity that a life in a village brings than that of a city, which she describes as hectic and cramped. She is a thorough believer of living the life on one’s own terms and following the traditions and culture passed down the family. An excellent cook, Roja is not much of a foodie herself. She is also an avid Candy Crush addict and can always be found trying to beat her own mind-boggling scores. Her wish is to work in a subject that is related to the environment in the future. Roja was primarily involved in the wet lab work and nobody can beat her when it comes to preparing medias.R. RAMYA
Ramya is more of a lab essential, someone without whom the lab would be lacking in life. She’s a final year Biotechnology student and aims to specialize in genetic engineering for her masters. She loves food in any form and burns off all those calories by dancing for us from time to time. She stalks people for a hobby and is quite skilled at it. Ramya finds the idea of paranormal existence ridiculous and can be found roaming dark corridors alone just to chill out. She is indeed very hard to frighten. She’s responsible and tough when she needs to be and hardly ever panics. Instead she helps bring the others back to normal when they do. She was a part of the HP team as well.V. SARANYA
An enthusiastic person with a curious mind, Saranya is another neuroscience freak in the team. Considering how boring life can get, anything out of the box inspires her. Logical with her decisions (that’s mainly food choices), humour is her strength. A very funny member, she has never failed to make us laugh when things were going south. As for what she wants to do next, Saranya is eyeing neuroscience for her major next year. Beware neuro diseases, you’re going to be extinct soon. Saranya though clumsy and carefree during the college lab sessions, was surprisingly co-ordinated and sincere when it came to iGEM interlab work.SHEETAL MARIA RAJAN
An aspirant geneticist and teacher, Sheetal is one of the most motivated people on the team. She’s a happy and carefree person who lives life on her own terms. She loves trying out new food and cuisines, no matter how weird they may be. She’s a quick learner, evident from the time it took her, an outsider, to learn the local language. Her passion towards biotechnology is what pushes her forward. When she’s not on the lookout for hot guys, she dreams about the more important things in life like going on a world tour. Sheetal played an integral role in raising funds for the project.N.S. VASAVI
Another Potterhead of the team, Vasavi is second only to greats like da Vinci when she sketches. Out on an adventure to explore the unexplored, Vasavi immediately agreed to be on our iGEM team in the blink of an eye. When she’s not in the lab, she dwells in her music and reads everything under the sun. Arguably the most friendly person in the team, neuroscience is the only thing that does not give her a headache.AKASH RAJAGOPAL
Quiz extraordinaire, Akash loves his quizzing and would do it day in and day out, like clockwork. Lovingly called as the 'Team chauffeur', he's the one we count on to get us to wherever we need to be. Akash played a vital role in managing the Human Practices and collaborations. He almost always points out the obvious in any given situation and prides himself on his logical stumping skills. He takes his love for all things food to the extreme, which is mildly cute, when not scary.MARCIA SMITI JUDE
Also called Mars, she is a Chemistry-Biology enthusiast who loves to read and write. Being able to shut herself from reality and step into another world albeit fiction or non provides her with utmost happiness. Marcia was instrumental in preparing the content for the wiki page. When she is not studying or working in the lab, she loves playing the basketball, eating pizza, baking cakes and taking selfies. Her worst nightmare would be to have to choose between basketball and food. Occasionally, she enjoys bullying her sister (channeling her inner Regina George). Marcia is a social butterfly and aspires to travel the world with her squad, someday. When she's older, she wishes to spend her life as a part time biologist, full time fan-girling over Jon Snow.SRIMATHI JAYARAMAN
Srimathi is one of the most silent people in the team, yet with her impeccable lab skills, she often leaves us in awe. Apart from working in the lab, she also prepared all our charts for HP. When she’s not working in the lab, she sings, plays tennis and reads. Awestruck by the applications of biology in engineering, she aspires to be a successful entrepreneur. A brilliant poet, Srimathi writes in Tamil and finds nanotechnology more interesting than anything else.AMAL JUDE ASHWIN F.
If there is one person who's got their life all mapped out, it's Ashwin. He is an overachiever in every sense of the word, right from wanting to have seven kids to playing a sport even after his knees give out! Ashwin played a pivotal role in completing the interlab study. He loves creating memes, and featuring in them, even more so. He plays Basketball and hopes to attract the ladies with his mad skills on court. He is very fond of classy, old Tamil songs and clichè long rides on his bike. He loves computer programming and hopes to become a successful Biological programmer some day and own his own start up.R. PREETHA
Being a perfectionist, Preetha strives to be dedicated to whatever she does, be it working in the lab or for the HP. She loves her family and friends and looks forward to spending time with them. Her favourite food is Biryani, so much that she swears she can gorge on it all day, everyday. She spends her free time in watching tv and reading up on facts. Preetha can work tirelessly for an entire day and do a complete 180, the next. She loves scrolling through her phone and claims that she always finds something interesting on it. She is the studious one in our team. She wants to grow up to be a successful biotechnologist and focus her research on Parkinson's disease.VISHAL VISWANATHAN
One amongst the two coding masterminds of our team, Vishal loves to play Chess more than anything else. He is the 23rd national level player of our country, 66th in international chess and has won numerous titles to his name. Vishal wants to grow up to be a successful software engineer.YASEEN HUSSAIN
Yaseen, the other computer science mastermind of our team absolutely loves web designing. This is the only reason why he agreed to help us out on our wiki. In his free time, Yaseen enjoys watching television serials and PC gaming. In the future, Yaseen aspires to become a successful entrepreneur.
