Team:TUDelft/Team
Aafke van Aalst
Role:
Lab Manager
Study:
MSc Life Science & Technology
Fun fact:
Did you know that Aafke is highly sensitive for mint? Every time she brushes her teeth or chews gum she has to sneeze.
Role description:
As Lab Manager, I am responsible for everything that has to do with the lab. This includes ordering lab supplies, doing experiments, being up-to-date with all the lab activities and helping out where needed, and of course keeping the lab as organized as possible.
Motivation to join iGEM:
The idea of running your own project from A to Z, including raising money and setting up a website is exciting. It allows you to put theory to practice. Particularly exciting, is the interdisciplinary aspect of the team, which allows you to create very inventive and innovative ideas and to really share your expertise.
Kimberly Barentsen
Role:
Human Practices Manager
Study:
BSc Life Science & Technology, MSc Science Communication
Fun fact:
Did you know Kimberly has the whole Harry Potter Lego collection? She was a huge fan of Harry Potter and was a creative kid that liked to create her own Harry Potter fantasy world while claiming all space in the rooms. She proudly stored her lego collection in a glass closet. Unfortunately, her HP castle collapsed after trying to move the closet.
Role description:
As Human Practices manager, I am responsible for the Integrated Human Practices (IHP), the education and the public engagement and the outreach. Considering IHP, it is my job to start dialogues with the different stakeholders and to adapt our project and final application accordingly. Also, I have have been working on education for synbio engineers with the project “How can engineers include relevance and responsibility in their design”. To engage and educate the public regarding synthetic biology, the team was present during several Science and Technology events, and multiple articles have appeared in the media. Helping team members to frame their scientific stories in a way everyone can understand, is one of my favourite activities.
Motivation to join iGEM
I believe in synthetic biology and its the potential. However, synthetic biology cannot develop to its full potential without the integration of stakeholders- and societal values. My motivation is to flourish the iGEM project in a way that the project meets stakeholders- and societal values, and results in an applied synbio design with impact.
Kelly Hamers
Role:
PR team, Lab team, Presentation team, Wiki team
Study:
MSc Life Science & Technology
Fun fact:
Did you know that apparently her most interesting feature is her clumsiness? She recently managed to fracture her metatarsal (bone in your foot) by getting trapped underneath a metal tube of the motorcycle during her practice lessons. Said metal tube was there to prevent getting trapped... I guess that’s what they call irony...
Role description:
As a part of the PR team, I am involved in the representation of iGEM during public events like the Museumnacht Leiden. Additionally, I spent my summer holidays realizing our idea in the lab. Finally, I gave a presentation during TEDx Delft and I am one of the presenters for the final presentation in Boston!
Motivation to join iGEM:
I saw iGEM as a great opportunity to develop myself in multiple ways, especially regarding independent work in the lab and presentational skills. iGEM is a perfect addition to the LST curriculum and forms a nice contrast with the large scale design project of this studies. Nevertheless, besides all its useful aspects, the new experiences and working in a motivated group of students is just also a lot of fun!
Jeroen Jacques
Role:
Sponsor Team
Study:
BSc Nanobiology
Fun fact:
Did you know that Jeroen lit his hair on fire the first day of his lab course? Smelling the strange burned odour he thought: “Someone is ruining his work”, while something began to fall down. This seemed to be his hair. Luckily he noticed it on time, so the only thing it caused was saving a couple of bucks at the barber.
Role description:
As a member of the sponsor team, my role is to find sponsors and to keep in touch with them. Furthermore, I was the guy with the camera, I made sure that all we did was frozen in time with pictures and videos. In the lab I worked on the Cas13a module and I was involved in linking Cas13a with the detection method.
Motivation to join iGEM:
I didn't have a lot of experience in working on a big project in a team, but I am convinced that these kind of projects are the best way to learn new things and obtain new skills. Therefore, I decided to join iGEM. Moreover, besides following basic courses, I didn't have much experience in the lab, participating in the iGEM competition changed this. (I learned how to prevent burning my hair!)
Floor de Jong
Role:
Finance Manager
Study:
MSc Nanobiology
Fun fact:
Did you know that Floor is mysteriously missing for five days every February, ever since she started studying? To find her you need to travel to a small village near Nijmegen, named Beek. Here she is celebrating Carnaval with her family since she was a baby. She even became “jeugd page” when she was nine. “Pages” are the girls assisting the prince during Carnaval (the prince was 11).
Role description:
As Finance Manager, my job is to keep track of all the expenses of the team. During the whole project, I will be in close contact with our Sponsor Manager Jasper, and I will be responsible for dividing the money he acquires over the different parts of the project and managing supply orders.
Motivation to join iGEM:
I wanted to join iGEM because I thought it was interesting to work together with students on a synthetic biology project. As an iGEM team we do everything ourselves, from raising money to working in the lab and everything in between. I wanted to learn a lot about all these different parts of the project and develop myself further.
Fiona Murphy
Role:
Team Captain
Study:
MSc Nanobiology
Fun fact:
Did you know that Fiona’s favourite music genre is Christmas songs? She helped to compile the biggest christmas song spotify playlist ever together with her fellow christmas-loving board members, which was used for a very successful karaoke party. She also listens to ‘Last Christmas’ from Wham! at least once a week.
Role description:
As Team Captain, it is my job to make sure all the team members have everything they need to stay motivated and work on making a fantastic project. I also coordinate meetings, manage contact with supervisors and keep an overview on what is happening in all aspects of the project.
Motivation to join iGEM:
I loved the idea of learning all the ins and outs of developing a project from scratch and building experience working in a large interdisciplinary team. iGEM was the perfect opportunity for this!
Guillermo Serena Ruiz
Role:
PR team
Study:
MSc Chemical Engineering
Fun fact:
Besides Guillermo’s love for science, music was always important for him too. After a failed shower-singing career, Guillermo discovered his music performance skills after beating his friends on Guitar Hero. That made him decide to take up guitar and so he has been playing ever since. He even joined conservatorium whilst trying to survive his ChemE studies in Spain.
Role description:
As part of the science and modeling teams, my role consists of coming up with the best ideas for the project while at the same time verifying their feasibility to help this project make it to the next level. As for the PR, my job is to make this project reach everyone out there and enable people outside our team to have a say in our work. My aim is to act as a bridge between the industrial/applicable side to chemistry/synthetic biology and society.
Motivation to join iGEM:
Over the course of my years at university, I discovered that undoubtedly, research is what appealed to me the most, especially when related to chemistry and biology and when it entails laboratory work. iGEM was for me the opportunity to carry out all of these while still being a MSc student at a university and educate myself further as a researcher.
Kasper Spoelstra
Role:
Science Manager
Study:
MSc Nanobiology
Fun fact:
Did you know that Kasper actually started studying Nanobiology more or less by accident? He was at the open house of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, already having decided to study Econometrics. He went to the presentation of Nanobiology thinking that it was to kill spare time, but when he walked out, his only question was, “where do I sign up?”
Role description:
The words ‘Science Manager’ actually say it all: I am responsible for the science in our project. My main tasks are designing and coordinating the experiments. This comes down to reading and understanding papers and protocols, and translating them into experiments that we need to do for our project.
Motivation to join iGEM:
The main reason for me to join iGEM is that I knew it would be a unique way to fill in part of my curriculum by participating in this project. It is a great opportunity to work with a team towards the Boston Jamboree, and it is completely different from courses, committee work and individual research projects. I did not want to miss out on that experience!
Gabriella Tany
Role:
Secretary:
Study:
MSc Nanobiology
Fun fact:
Did you know that the first time Gaby decided to paint a painting, she spent 3 entire days on it? She was so preoccupied with it that she only stopped painting to sleep and eat. Even my friends were wondering what she was doing, since she would only reply to them late in the evening. That was 4 years ago, she hasn’t touched a paintbrush ever since. And oh, she loves hazelnut ice cream.
Role description:
As secretary, I am like the mother of the group. My job is to make sure everyone is happy and has a full stomach. As you may know, moms are really versatile and that is also what I am in the group by helping out wherever I am necessary. Another responsibility of being a secretary is to keep everything well organized and handle all the incoming new emails and events. I try to make sure that the team will be kept up to date with all the deadlines and events.
Motivation to join iGEM:
What piqued my enthusiasm for joining iGEM is the way students are given the opportunity to express their creativity and to put their innovative ideas to practice.We are given a chance to experience working as a scientist while putting our skills and knowledge up to a challenge.
Isabell Trinh
Role:
Safety Officer
Study:
MSc Nanobiology
Fun fact:
Did you know that Isabell has 20 different types of loose-leaf tea at home? This is what happens when you tell people: “Oh I like this thing, so if you don’t know what to give me for [insert random occasion], just buy that.” - and they never forget about it. Luckily, Isabell moved towns now, so she actually has the opportunity to drink all of it - she does like tea after all.
Role description:
As Safety Officer, it is my job to coordinate lab safety requirements as well as preparing the safety proposal and report for this year’s project. However, since this role is only work intensive during some parts of the projects, I have now morphed into a jack-of-all-trades helping with whatever needs help.
Motivation to join iGEM:
The idea of starting a project from scratch and working on all the different components involved in research was what mainly motivated me to join iGEM. I also thought it was an exciting opportunity to really delve into a completely new topic for me - synthetic biology - and learn new techniques and skills.
Jasper Veerman
Role:
Sponsor Manager
Study:
MSc Nanobiology
Fun fact:
Did you know that Jasper is growing his in-room garden (‘moestuintjes’) during the past months? He finds that watering, supporting and repotting plants when they grow big is a highly rewarding hobby to share with his housemates. He is especially proud of his cinnamon, basil and sunflowers.
Role description:
As Sponsor Manager, I have the honour of sharing our project with educational institutions, companies and other organizations. In order to conduct the science and public outreach for our dream application, we should engage in collaborations. I wish to convey our team’s enthusiasm in order to see if working together can be beneficial for both the above-mentioned parties and us!
Motivation to join iGEM:
I find it highly rewarding to apply my knowledge. iGEM provides the opportunity to put my knowledge about synthetic biology into practise and contribute to solving global problems. Being able to do so in a team of ambitious students is a privilege. In addition to expanding my scientific toolbox, I believe it is also valuable to get insight into the organizational side of research, for example in designing the research, acquiring funding and conducting human outreach. Last, but certainly not least, I see iGEM as the perfect platform to show the potential of synthetic biology to the world. When I attend presentations or engage in discussions, I feel most inspired if the presenters get a sparkle in their eyes when they talk about the work they do. Personally, I feel that synthetic biology is a wonderful field, yet poorly understood by the general public. During (and after) iGEM, I aim to share my enthusiasm for synthetic biology and transfer this sparkle to as many people as possible.
Amária Vledder
Role:
PR team, Sponsor Team
Study:
BSc Nanobiology
Fun fact:
Did you know that a goal in Amária’s life is to know the dance steps to single ladies of Beyonce and that she practices semi-regularly with her girlfriends but still fails?
Role description:
My role in the team is quite versatile. I am in charge of outreach, for instance I posted all the introductions on Facebook! Also, I'm part of the sponsor team, science team and lab team, so I do a lot of research too.
Motivation to join iGEM:
I like to make the most out of my university experience, so I try to do as many extracurricular activities as possible. I wish to develop myself and to hone my lab skills in order to become a successful Nanobiologist. I expected to gain and advance lots of skills in the process of iGem, such as working in groups and doing research and finally integrating all this in a real project.
Hielke Walinga
Role:
Wiki Manager
Study:
BSc Nanobiology
Fun fact:
Did you know that Hielke has been the youth world champion of Frisian draughts three times? Although there are only a few people familiar with this game, still a world champion.
Role description:
As the wiki manager, I am responsible for how our website looks. At the moment I am making this website from scratch, writing all the code on my own. I think the “computer readable text” is a quite interesting concept. It is much related to how DNA is interpreted as a code to execute its functions and build and recreate itself.
Motivation to join iGEM:
I think this century will see a lot of growth in the field of synthetic biology. By joining iGEM I wanted to see what the opportunities there are for me in this exciting era.
Supervising PIs
Asst. prof. Stan Brouns
Asst. prof. Timon Idema
Asst. prof. Aljoscha Wahl
Instructors
Cristóbal Almendros Romero, PhD
Anthony Birnie, MSc
Hirad Daneshpour, MSc
David Foschepoth, PhD
Patrick de Jonge, MSc
Sebastian Kieper, MSc
Benjamin Lehner, MSc
Franklin Luzia de Nóbrega, PhD
Rebecca McKenzie, MSc
Louis Reese, PhD
Jochem Vink, MSc
Esengül Yildirim, BSc
